(PDF) Collaboration for academic literacies development and enriched inter-professional relationships
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Abstract
The Case Study Chapters
Discussion
Conclusions
How the Participants Experienced Collaboration
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Recommendations for Practice
Background and Context
Recommendations
Introduction
Findings: Achieving Education Transformations
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Collaboration for academic literacies development and enriched inter-professional relationships
Quentin Allan
2023, Collaboration in higher education: A new ecology of practice
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Abstract
The key argument in this chapter is that academic literacies development in a university environment requires close collaboration between faculty lecturers and learning advisors. Ideally, teaching and learning materials are informed through close analysis of exemplar texts of student writing.
In terms of recommendations, it is desirable that students are scaffolded in the development of practical academic writing skills in an environment that is characterised by an exploratory developmental approach and plenty of dialogue. Ideally, students collaborate closely with staff in the development of teaching materials as part of a more student-centred approach.
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Abegglen, Sandra , Tom Burns , and Sandra Sinfield , ed. Collaboration in Higher Education. London,: Bloomsbury Academic,
2023. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 15 Aug. 2023.
Accessed from:
www.bloomsburycollections.com
Accessed on:
Wed Aug 16 2023 11:42:26 New Zealand Standard Time
Copyright © Sandra Abegglen, Tom Burns and Sandra Sinfield and contributors. All rights reserved. Further reproduction or
distribution is prohibited without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Staff Collaborations to Enhance
Teaching and Learning
Introduction
Collaboration, as its Latin roots suggest – labouring together – is the action of working
with one or more people to produce or create something or to achieve a common goal.
For collaborative projects to work, there must be a shared vision and commitment
to the collaborative project – and to the team itself. A Community of Practice (Lave
& Wenger, 1991) must emerge that learns how to act and be together. Within this,
trust, empathy, tolerance and communication are important: the genuine interest
in the other that promotes bonding, belonging and dialogue. Thus, collaboration in
education could be defined as a reciprocal, mutual activity in which problems are
identified and solutions are developed collectively, and where contributions are equally
valued and respected. This is different from top-down, hierarchical approaches where
one party has the expertise or the answer – the power to make decisions. In a humane
HE that is resisting the coercion and abjection of these neoliberal times (Hall, 2018,
2021), true partnerships and relationships in education are therefore vital (Bingham
& Sidorkin, 2004). By enacting ‘community’ and co-creating, we can confront difficult
and shifting realities, finding new solutions as actors and agents in our own processes.
And, it is only through experiencing and enacting true collaboration that academic
staff can model and enable this for their students. Staff need positive interpersonal
interactions to enrich their practice for ‘action’ (Freire, 2007, 1998), the building of
authentic curriculum spaces that catalyse true partnership, with each other and with
students to create a HE of hope.
This section of the book presents inspirational examples of peer-to-peer
collaborations to improve teaching and learning, outlining collaborative workings
between discipline and professional staff within and across departments. The case
studies reveal how academics ‘broke out’ of their silos, working together to create
powerful learning spaces for their students which increased awareness of each other’s
roles and epistemological practices. Together, they navigated the supercomplexity
of academia as they created and modelled what a humane, collegiate HE could
look like.
34
Collaboration in Higher Education
The Case Study Chapters
In Writing Retreats in Social Work Kevin Brazant and Dee Tracey demonstrate what
is possible when a learning developer and a discipline academic come together to
interrogate student issues in disciplinary assessment. Together they developed a sixstep writing retreat programme that could be developed for and integrated within any
disciplinary context. They outline how to design and deliver meaningful free writing
and peer-review activity where students co-create assessment understanding and
develop self-efficacy.
Another such collaboration in Health Sciences – Collaboration for Academic
Literacies Development and Enriched Inter-professional Relationships by Quentin
Allan, Robyn McWilliams and Sue Raleigh – outlines how work between faculty staff
and academic literacy tutors led to the identification of a gap in student engagement
with assessment. They developed active and interactive writing resources to facilitate
sessions with students, using authentic writing exemplars to make transparent
otherwise opaque academic forms and processes. All participants recognized the
impact of the initiative not just on student learning, but on the PD impact of the
collaborative endeavour itself.
With Co-producing a Skills-based Programme Pippa Soccio and Kate Tregloan
develop the notion of collaboration for PD even further, outlining how ‘Silver
Sessional’ staff were drawn into the staff PD unit to develop, deliver and reflect on
dialogic PD workshops for staff across the Built Environments Faculty. The lessons
learned focused not just on the ethical and effective nature of such a collaborative
venture, but that as a result sessional staff felt more agentic, included and valued.
In Bringing Research to Life Laura Barclay, Sharon Bitter, Anne-Kathrin Reck and
Rhiannon Parry Thompson discuss how they used their shared interest in the power
of storytelling to generate an intriguing extra-curricular ‘research skills’ session for
students. The initiative approached research differently, harnessing the power of
narrative to make research and research outcomes more meaningful for students while
shaking up notions of what research can be and how it can be used.
In Approaching Blended Learning through Teaching Team Collaboration Katherine
Herbert, Julia Lynch and Humayun Murshed reveal the power of a large-scale,
multi-site cross-state collaboration to develop a holistic blended learning experience
to foster self-directed study in students who typically do not see themselves as active
learners. They tease out the complexity of the issues they wanted to address and the
power of cross-team working, even when those teams have differing academic and
professional capital, and are located on different campuses.
Developing 21st Century Skills through Meaningful Cross-institutional Collaborative
International Community Service Projects by Pranit Anand and Byron Tsz Kit Lui
outlines a truly inspirational approach to authentic group work in a transnational
project. Educators and students from two different universities in two different
countries came together to develop solutions for NGOs situated in a third country,
demonstrating how creative collaboration between staff teams can create even more
creative collaborative experiences for students.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
35
Diana J. Pritchard, Helen Connolly, Amanda Egbe, Mohamed Saeudy, Paul
Rowinski, James Bishop, Tamara Ashley and Nicholas Worsfold make a case for Crossdisciplinary Collaborations for Sustainable Futures, and a Vital and Relevant Academic
Community. In their case study they outline their boundary crossing project where
they pooled their interest in ethical education for sustainable futures to bring together
multi-disciplinary teams from within and outwith the university to create mass ‘learnin’ events to explore contemporary issues through multiple lenses for ‘real’ social and
academic outcomes. Not only did their project break academic isolation, it seeded
management buy-in to transform practice for the long term.
Writing Retreats in Social Work: A Disruptive Approach
to Facilitating Practice Learning
Kevin Brazant and Dee Tracey
This case study describes a co-designed writing retreat designed to support
students with the synthesis of theory and practice through writing.
It models decentring power by switching from transmission to a dialogic
pedagogy.
It offers a six-step model to develop metacognition, critical thinking and
analysis as part of assessment practices.
Promoted in the chapter are free writing and peer review to co-create
meaning.
We recommend writing retreats to develop writing and written discourse.
Introduction: Collaborating to Support the Learning of
Social Work Students
This chapter presents a case study of a collaboratively designed writing retreat
intervention seeking to support critical and creative capacities among Social Work
students on a practice learning module. The goal is to develop students as actors with
agency within ‘the dominant framework of higher education’ (Bellinger & Kagawa,
2012). The authors are aware of the wider challenges to UK Social Work education,
its constraints, financial and cultural, and the impact on teaching practices in HE
(Maclachlan, 2007) where the pressure can be to ‘teach to the test’ rather than in ways
that are liberatory and empowering for the student. To combat some of these points, a
joint collaboration was formed between a learning developer (academic mentor) and
a qualified Social Work practitioner (subject tutor) with the purpose of supporting the
authentic learning and development of Social Work students.
36
Collaboration in Higher Education
This case study also addresses the dichotomy of teaching for an employment
environment of increased regulation and targets based on political imperatives, yet
still requires Social Workers to have creativity and problem-solving skills (Jordan
& Jordan, 2000). Adopting a dialogic, social constructionist methodology, the
authors circumvent didactic, transmissive and monologic teaching approaches
(Stewart & McClure, 2013) – reframing learning as dialogic, disruptive, engaging and
collaborative, with positive implications for interdisciplinary learning and teaching
practice.
Our Contested Context
Social Work programmes across universities are designed in a similar manner, with
a blend of academic theoretical learning alongside practical work placements. In
academic terms, the first element of learning is classroom based with the primary
focus being based upon the learning (the development) of Social Work skills,
knowledge, values, theories and methods. This forms the ‘grounding’ basis for the
student’s preparation to enter their Social Work practice placements. In designing
our project, we thought about ‘how’ to fully prepare a student for the reality of Social
Work practice when the programme is set within an academic HE structure which
does not always fit with the realism of the profession, with the university processes
at times being limited and not always matching the professional standards and
expectations.
Critical Social Work
When considering preparation for the Social Work role, critical reflection and analysis
are harnessed for the development of Social Workers, whether qualified or unqualified.
This is recognized as of significant importance when linking theory to practice: for
qualified Social Workers it is an essential tool for critical decision making (Thompson,
2018). Mantell and Scragg (2018) and other academics recognize the importance
of high-quality Social Work education in developing future-qualified Social Work
practitioners. Foremost for a profession which is seen as highly charged, reflective
practice can help to integrate theoretical learning into practice, giving the student the
tools, capacities and platform to be ‘ready for practice’.
Social Work England is the regulatory body for Social Work along with another
prominent body, the British Association of Social Work (BASW). In the UK, they
recognize that
critical reflection encourages social workers to examine their approach,
judgements, decisions and interventions [and acknowledges that] when applying
critical reflection, thinking and analysis it helps social workers formulate a
treatment plan or intervention for working with a client.
(Social Work England, 2020)
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
37
Therefore, it is essential for students to begin to understand and use the process of
critical reflection and analysis as early as possible in their careers, recognizing the
importance that it holds, especially to ensure unbiased, anti-discrimination, antioppression and anti-racist practice (Tedam, 2021). Based on this importance, we
designed our project and teaching sessions to prepare students for their placement and
to articulate the experiences of their placements in the form of a practice case study
assignment, using techniques for critical reflection and dialogue.
What We Did
The role of the educator is to facilitate the learning process by designing sessions that
will help students learn and discover, to wrestle with ideas and ‘emergent’ knowledge.
This was the main aim for this project – to not limit the student in their creativity,
but to let them explore and find answers, whilst reflecting on their previous life skills
and knowledge. A number of theorists and psychologists, such as Bruner, Dewey and
Ausubel, held the view that the purpose of education is not to just impart knowledge, but
instead to facilitate thinking and problem-solving skills which can then be transferred
to a range of situations. With students using their own past experiences and prior
knowledge as part of their learning, this approach sits well with the demographics of
Social Work students that attend our programme and who come with life skills, prior
experience and can relate these experiences to their current learning (Bates, 2019).
As part of active, collaborative learning, ‘Dialogic Pedagogy’ (Alexander, 2010) shifts
the emphasis from the transmission of knowledge by the lecturer to the achievement
of learning by the students, through creating conducive learning environments. Our
curriculum design approach to these practice learning sessions was to create dialogic
instances throughout the writing retreat, using six strategies as follows:
1. Students engaged in a free writing activity upon a case study assignment to
stimulate ideas and reflections and to take ownership of their learning. The task
was to identify a family or client group with whom they worked and explore the
reasons for the choice and how this met the assessment brief.
2. In smaller groups students annotated the assessment criteria, familiarizing
themselves with assignment expectations, exploring these with peers and
strategizing on how they will meet learning objectives and outcomes.
3. They then produced a draft reflective case study and a subsequent plan to address
any gaps in current knowledge.
4. Then they engaged in a peer-sharing exercise of their (draft) case studies
harnessing critical thinking by questioning and assessing the work of their peers
as a preface to the self-appraisal of their own work.
5. Using a bespoke toolkit of resources and worksheets to assess criticality in their
Practice Study, they built on their reflections and were encouraged to share further
tips with peers to bolster their learning strategies.
6. Using a writing retreat style activity, they drafted their actual practice study and
gained further feedback from their peers through peer appraisal.
38
Collaboration in Higher Education
Throughout, students were encouraged to collaborate, cooperate and discuss their
learning, their processes, their thinking and their draft work. These processes enacted
and modelled learning as the collaborative co-construction of knowledge.
Discussion
This approach was cognisant of the interplay of power (Bakhtin, 1999; Stewart &
McClure, 2013) disrupting the monologic discourse of traditional forms of teaching.
As illustrated above, the learning developer and practice lead planned and scaffolded
the retreat but stepped back from intervening in the dialogic solution of problems;
instead, activities were constructed to provoke solutions from and between peers.
The facilitation of learning was modelled by a flexible and compassionate style by
both lecturer and learning development practitioner, creating a conducive learning
environment for social learning (Gilbert 2017; Rogers & Freiberg 1994). Given the
emancipatory ideas found in Social Work, we sought to frame a discourse in the retreat
space that inspired real action in the world as part of student placements, with their
overall experiences articulated through their practice case study assignment (Shor &
Freire, 1987).
From a constructionist perspective we sought to model an interpretivist epistemology
that co-constructs knowledge and took opportunities to mediate understanding of the
curriculum and task at hand between novice, able learners and academics (Vygotsky,
1962). Based on the feedback from students they all agreed unanimously that the thing
of greatest value to them was to share their placement experiences with their peers
and being given the time to think about their chosen clients for the purposes of their
practice study assignment as illustrated below:
I have learned how to use the feedback of my colleagues to think about my practice
and to use this constructive criticism to also form part of my own self-analysis and
critique.
The small group discussions amongst my peers was very helpful to learn about
different approaches to knowledge and to apply this to my practice study.
I had written my practice study but after listening to my peers and lecturers
through this workshop I will go back and restructure as I think my work appears
more descriptive than critical and I believe this would enhance my grade for this
assignment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, with a learning developer and discipline academic undertaking this joint
venture, we brought together the ‘academic’ element of the learning and the practical
experience of Social Work learning, whilst integrating learning strategies (developing
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
39
metacognitive dispositions and study skills) within the collaborative study space.
We were able to devise and design a six-step scaffolded framework and use tools to
co-teach, meaning that we were able to cooperate to bring a more fulfilling enrichment
to the student learning. Our co-delivery used both of the author’s skills, disciplinary
and interdisciplinary knowledge sets to enhance student learning.
Group work is often fraught with tensions and conflict between students. However,
we believe we created space for a collaborative community of practice to emerge
that united the students in their endeavours and obviated the normal tensions of
(inauthentic) group work. Given the positive feedback from the project, we believe this
presents a cogent case for the further development of scaffolded, cooperative, writing
retreats as part of assessment preparation, overtly acknowledging peer appraisal as
part of this process. Not only did this develop critical thinking as intended but fostered
student learning communities and self-efficacy.
Collaboration for Academic Literacies Development and
Enriched Inter-professional Relationships
Quentin Allan, Robyn McWilliams and Sue Raleigh
This case study outlines a collaborative academic literacies development
project in a biological sciences setting.
The key argument is that such development requires close collaboration
between faculty lecturers and learning advisors.
The project promotes a staged approach to interactive engagement with
exemplar texts.
Collaborations between discipline and literacy staff for student development
also provide rich professional development, and writing opportunities.
A next step would be to work with students as partners in future literacies
development projects.
Introduction
In this chapter, we argue that academic literacies’ development in a university
environment ideally involves close collaboration between faculty lecturers (FLs) who
are subject experts in their discipline and learning advisors (LAs) whose expertise in
applied linguistics informs their academic writing guidance. This chapter has been
co-authored by two LA colleagues and one FL. The subject context in this case is
biological sciences with a focus on human anatomy and physiology; the linguistic
guidance is informed by the ‘genre approach’, as outlined by foundational writers
in the field of educational linguistics (Martin & Rothery, 1993; Swales, 1990). This
40
Collaboration in Higher Education
approach is characterized by a focus on helping students identify salient features of
different assignment types. In practical terms, this involves careful deconstruction of
exemplar texts that have been produced by students in authentic assessments (Rose &
Martin, 2012). Through observation of student writing, and recent interactions with
faculty lecturers, the LAs have been inspired to move beyond a ‘best-practice model’
of embedding academic literacies development as outlined in McWilliams and Allan
(2014), to something more collaborative: working together to tackle student study,
learning and communication issues. One important way in which we have extended the
original model is through the use of exemplar texts as the point of departure, specifically
the genre short answer questions. We were interested in exploring the effectiveness of
co-developing teaching materials derived from a careful deconstruction of exemplars.
This case study starts by identifying two key themes from the literature: institutional
awareness and use of exemplar texts. It moves on to summarize the experiences of an
FL who requested LA support and how this developed into a partnership for learning.
Next is a discussion of FL awareness of embedding academic literacy practices
followed by an examination of the importance of student exemplar texts. The case
study concludes with a consideration of how the collaboration has enhanced student
learning, followed by recommendations.
Lecturer Awareness Relating to the Value
of Embedding Academic Literacy
Collaborative, embedded literacy practices have become more widespread across
faculties and disciplinary programmes in recent years (Devereux et al., 2018). To reflect
these developments, a number of useful models or frameworks of embedded practice
approaches have been developed (e.g. McWilliams & Allan, 2014; Charlton & Martin,
2018; Maldoni, 2018). This focus on discipline-specific practices has raised lecturers’
awareness of the linguistic features and rhetorical conventions of particular assessment
types (Purser, 2011) and the value of student exemplars in illuminating them (Wingate,
2018). The value here resides in lecturers’ ability to draw students’ attention to salient
textual patterns that are associated with the assignment type and the ‘work’ that those
features accomplish in the text. In a teaching environment, whether online or in a
classroom, it is also possible to generate productive discussions with students about
learning in general, and academic writing in particular – including the possibilities of
writing to learn, as distinct from learning to write (Abegglen et al., 2021).
Importance of Student Exemplar Texts
The use of student exemplar texts has become central to developing effective literacy
materials to support students when completing assessments (Dixon et al., 2020;
Hawe et al., 2021). Whilst some research suggests that the use of exemplars can be
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
41
overwhelming for some students (Hendry et al., 2011), the dominant view is that their
use is beneficial for improving the quality of student writing. In terms of motivation,
providing students with tools to examine their own writing enhances self-efficacy and
self-regulation (Hawe et al., 2021). These tools are complemented by lecturer feedback
on formative assessments which includes comparisons between exemplar texts and
students’ own writing (Carless & Boud, 2018).
The Collaboration between Learning Advisors
and Faculty Lecturers
In a busy university setting, many interactions between staff members end up being
merely transactional and non-dialogic; in contrast, in this case, the interaction between
LAs and FL is characterized by a richly dynamic and ongoing relationship that has at
its heart student success and retention. From the FL’s perspective, one of the primary
objectives is to scaffold students in their understanding of the complexities of biological
science. This starts with the classroom content and is linked to real-life examples with
an awareness of the relevance to future practice in their respective health fields. The
focus then tends to be on subject content rather than writing. However, students
can experience difficulties with writing about this type of subject and showcasing
their learning through writing. These difficulties include concise paraphrasing of
complex physiological processes, using appropriate terminology but also familiarizing
themselves with subject-specific genres.
The collaboration in this case emerged from a request by the FL for multiple
individual student consultations. This request was not feasible given the LA team’s
limited staff resources and the large student cohort (Semester two, 2019, n = 572;
Semester two, 2020, n = 676). For the assessment tasks in this paper, a number of
writing challenges were presented (distinctive structure, purpose and language
features) for which there had not been any previous tailored support.
The collaboration here was initiated by the FL with respect to helping students'
structure responses to short answer questions. The LAs consulted firstly with students
who had been identified as needing support, then with the FLs to understand from
the teachers’ perspective the sort of problems students were encountering. The next
step was to jointly develop a series of academic writing workshops to address the
unique writing challenges of this assessment. The objective was to develop sustainable
resources for a large cohort that could be transferred from one semester to the next,
indefinitely. A key aspect of the LA approach is the use and systematic analysis of
authentic exemplar texts to highlight and scaffold the learning required. An exciting
development has been the integration of emerging technologies to create text animation
to emphasize salient features of exemplars.
The close partnership between the FLs and the LA enabled the coming together of
different epistemological approaches and practices, developing mutual understanding
and cooperation for the benefit of increased student engagement with their learning.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
The teaching and learning materials and classroom activities emerged from this
ongoing dialogue:
Firstly, students were asked to identify key words in a sample question.
Then students’ attention was drawn to linguistic exponents for particular language
functions, e.g. language for describing anatomical structures, and language for
explaining physiological processes and neurological pathways.
Students were then shown an exemplar text which had been deconstructed and
annotated to highlight key textual features.
Finally, students were provided with opportunities to practise writing – with
formative feedback.
How Did This Collaboration Enhance Student Learning?
The impact on student learning is encouraging. Informal feedback from students who
attended targeted writing workshops indicates that they are aware of developing a more
nuanced understanding of academic writing, via the explicit pedagogical focus on text
structure, purpose and language choices – and especially through opportunities to
discuss aspects of their writing with classmates, ALs and FLs.
Furthermore, FL feedback suggests that the embedded literacies focus has resulted
in students achieving higher grades; results compared with the previous year indicate
improved pass rates from 64 per cent in 2019 to 85 per cent in 2020.
Further, the coming together of FLs and LA in this project produced a cache of
annotated, animated exemplars that the students themselves could return to as part
of their self-directed learning. A conscious decision was made to provide unlimited
access to this growing suite of self-access videos for the duration of their degree,
fostering continuous learning support and exchange about writing.
Conclusions
For us, collaboration has enhanced professional development and enriched interprofessional relationships. The FL noticed a heightened sense of linguistic awareness
and a greater confidence to talk about text in practical ways with students. Of
particular value was the developmental, ongoing and organic collaborative process as
the materials were generated, trialled, critiqued and re-worked.
Staff collaborations such as this are designed to enhance teaching and learning.
The value of such collaborations is well attested in the literature (McWilliams &
Allan, 2014) and our approach was informed by solid pedagogic principles, including
the developmental use of exemplar texts. This approach takes the guesswork out of
managing the writing demands of a content-rich paper. From an LA perspective,
the objective was to establish an approach that is effective and enduring. Sustainable
academic literacies support is enhanced with good relationships enhanced by multimodal approaches. Certainly, when FL and LA work together, we have observed
positive change in students’ performance over time.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
43
Indeed, feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive; however, in
terms of materials development, the student voice has been somewhat backgrounded.
In future, it would be desirable to better integrate students as partners, including in
post-course feedback development, exploring how students had used the resources
and how they had helped in the understanding and ability to articulate their new
learning.
The focus of this case study has been on the growing relationship between FL and
LA colleagues. With students’ development at the heart, such collaborations unfold
over time and, in retrospect, can be seen to exhibit a number of dynamic dimensions,
including catalysing reflection and promoting creative approaches to student support
and writing. Such relationships at their best are dynamic, meetings ongoing, even
when the initiating objective has been met.
Reflecting on this case study has inspired us to rework the original model
(McWilliams & Allan, 2014) with the student exemplar text occupying a more central
role in the collaborative process. Even more so, it has inspired us to continue our
partnership and work closely, LA with FL, to develop students’ academic literacies.
This is co-learning and co-teaching in action.
Co-producing a Skills-based Programme: Peer-to-peer
Learning Partnerships in Professional Development
Philippa Soccio and Kate Tregloan
Sessional staff make a valuable and significant contribution to built
environment education, and enrich their teaching with research and industry
experience.
Support for the PD of this high-turnover casual workforce is a complex
challenge, raising pragmatic as well as ethical issues.
Collaborative peer-to-peer learning partnerships were trialled through this
project to support PD of this group.
Findings from the project identify key factors for effective support of sessional
staff, such as recognition of personal value, inclusion and agency, and the
enduring impact of social learning approaches.
Introduction
Sessional (adjunct, casual, part-time) staff account for more than 60 per cent of the
teaching workforce in Australian Schools of Architecture (Maroya et al., 2019). These
staff typically come from professional practice or are graduates undertaking Research
Higher Degree study. Despite the significant impact they will have on student learning,
most sessional teachers have little or no formal training in pedagogy (Sutherland,
2002). The following case study describes a collaborative developmental project by
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Collaboration in Higher Education
a teaching and learning group at a large comprehensive Australian university. The
project supported selected experienced sessional staff to co-produce a skills-based
PD programme suitable for their less experienced colleagues, but relevant to all
teaching staff.
Context
The Built Environment Learning and Teaching (BEL+T) group was established in 2018
at the University of Melbourne, located in Melbourne, Australia. The group works
with staff and students of the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning (ABP) to
improve teaching and learning, developing and sharing resources through the BEL+T
website at https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/belt. A targeted discipline-specific PD approach
is central to the support of the 400 new and returning sessional staff who are hired each
semester in ABP programmes. Together, sessional and tenured teachers work with
3,500 students studying Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban
Planning, Construction Management, Urban and Cultural Heritage, and Property.
The BEL+T group delivers PD for all staff to improve teaching quality and student
engagement through ongoing development of built environment pedagogy. This
PD draws on creative problem-solving and design-led approaches, evidence-based
research methodologies, and project-focused consultancy. In addition to induction
programmes for new staff, ‘BEL+T Sessions’ typically focus on current issues each
year and have included Teaching for Inclusive Learning; Collaboration vs Collusion;
Moving Online; and Using the Microstudio to date.
Sessional Staff Engagement (SSE) has been identified as a priority within ABP’s
Strategic plan, and an SSE Survey was developed by BEL+T to inform this work. Since
2020 the SSE Survey has shifted its focus to understanding bigger challenges through
longitudinal data, such as the changed experiences of sessional staff during the Coviddriven shift to online teaching, and a deeper understanding of teaching practice support
needs. One opportunity identified was tailoring in-semester PD for sessional staff: a
challenge widely recognized in the literature (see Hitch et al., 2018, for a review of
thirty-seven related papers published since 2006). The SSF Framework (funded through
the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching) defines provision of
‘a structured, systematic and accessible professional development programme’ as a
priority for supporting sessional staff (Harvey, 2013, 2). Our vision was for dialogic PD
to take place through collaborative projects, and this case study outlines that.
Aim
Results from the SSE survey suggested enthusiasm for PD opportunities in which
staff could engage directly with their sessional peers. In contrast to the formats for
previous BEL+T Sessions, such as roundtable discussions or focused workshops,
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
45
this project aimed to celebrate, support and enrich the expertise of sessional
teachers through the collaborative design of a dialogic PD programme. BEL+T
staff worked with experienced sessional staff to co-design the programme, aiming
to encourage a sense of ownership of the initiative, including the freedom to
revise sections of the course design based on their lived experience. Review of
the programme, with institutional Human Research Ethics Committee approval,
investigated What Works?: Peer-to-peer Learning (P2P) Partnerships Informing
Staff PD.
How We Approached the Collaboration
P2P partnerships are ‘voluntary, reciprocal helping relationships between individuals
of comparable status’ (Eisen, 2000, 5). While mentoring and coaching are typically
one-on-one directive relationships (Parker, et al., 2008), P2P partnerships are
themselves a collaboration. Discussion and interaction between participants ‘favour
the construction of knowledge and help to develop reflective skills and a sense of
“togetherness”’ (Guldberg, 2008, 46) and draw upon the qualities of social learning
spaces such as ‘knowing as practice’ and ‘knowing as identity’ (Wenger, 2011, 195) that
form part of Communities of Practice for learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991),
As ‘discussion’ forms the basis of P2P partnerships, experienced sessional staff
were recruited early. BEL+T shortlisted experienced sessional candidates to submit
expressions of interest. Four staff with twenty combined years of sessional teaching
experience were selected, collectively named ‘Silver Sessionals’, and paid to contribute
to four planning and review meetings and to the three conversation events. The ABP
Teaching Tricks and Tips events programme included: Starting the Semester Right
by establishing good staff-student relationships; Giving Students Quality Feedback/
Feedforward and Assessment; and Ending the Semester Well through teaching
reflection. The programme and the expertise of the Silver Sessionals were promoted
through the BEL+T News and Opportunity webpages, Faculty weekly newsletter and
the sessional teaching community site on the LMS.
A series of planning meetings underpinned the collaborations. In the first of these,
BEL+T presented a loose framework for the programme – this was refined by the Silver
Sessionals according to their reflections on their own lived experience. Subsequent
meetings explored topics for each event, and drew on BEL+T analysis of SSE survey
responses. Silver Sessionals shared related experiences, explored each other’s strategies
and speculated about alternatives. Key challenges were identified as prompts for each
event. Figure 3.1 presents an example – this and other session prompts can be found
via https://figshare.com/s/f28b09805ee54ed417c6. Planning meetings also offered
time for debriefing of previous events: Would we have changed anything? What did
we learn? During these hour-long discussions, the group also planned a structure
for the following event. BEL+T confirmed event plans by email with a running sheet
highlighting key ideas and strategies.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
Figure 3.1 Session 1 – Challenges at semester start (Soccio & Tregloan, 2022).
The PD Events in Action
In all three events, the Silver Sessionals led the discussion facilitated by BEL+T. Half
of each event was dedicated to Q&A between Silver Sessionals and attendees. The high
levels of interaction were encouraging as all events were held online due to Covid-19
restrictions. The number of participants varied across each event with the highest
attendance (nineteen people) at Session 1. Events were recorded for review, and BEL+T
summarized key takeaways, confirming these with the group before publication to a
Faculty Teaching LMS site. Site analytics indicate that this LMS page of resources was
viewed sixty-eight times over the semester. An end-of-project survey distributed via
the LMS found that participants valued the initiative, but struggled to attend due to
conflicting time commitments. BEL+T has speculated that payment of participants
may have improved attendance further.
At the conclusion of the project, an additional debrief meeting with Silver
Sessionals provided a focused opportunity to comment on the approach taken across
the programme and inform the evaluation of the project. The group consented
to recording discussions for the purposes of research and publication; these were
transcribed verbatim. BEL+T researchers analysed the data to identify emergent
themes in relation to the focus questions:
1. What was attractive about this ABP Teaching Tips and Tricks opportunity?
2. How would you describe your role in the sessions?
3. Did you feel as though you were part of a collaboration?
a. (If yes) What specific actions helped you to feel you were part of a
collaboration?
4. What did you gain from your involvement in Teaching Tips and Tricks?
5. Were there any surprises?
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
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How the Participants Experienced Collaboration
While feedback about the project was very positive, it also highlighted that sessional
staff are rarely included as collaborators in teaching and learning discussions, despite
their unique perspectives and experiences with students (AUTC, 2003). Participants
made it clear that they felt included in the project, and that this was unusual. As an
example,
absolutely, and very much that, when you do ask a question, you are really
genuinely listening to the answers, and taking that on board. There are so many
instances outside of this space where that isn’t the case. So it’s really, really lovely
to be … I keep using the word ‘embraced’ by the community here, and to feel very
much part of it in this space.
While the structure for each event was flexible and the conversations quite organic,
the value of the planning meetings was highlighted as supporting a sense of agency:
I think the planning sessions … (were) really instrumental in helping us develop a
sense that we’re a community putting this together rather than BEL+T just telling
us what we should be answering … You had a broad idea of what could happen, but
you were also entirely open to the conversation flowing and seeing how that might
mean that the direction of a particular session was moulded in a different way.
One participant described a perception that there were a series of ‘invisible
collaborators’ who were also contributing:
The word ‘conduit’ came to mind for some reason, and I think we’re all kind of
standing here and we’re not just a product of our own. We have all these wonderful
life experiences, wonderful teachers who might not necessarily be tutors and yet
somehow they influenced us in a way … in many ways, we don’t stand alone in
isolation. Everyone (is) together.
The discussion also highlighted how P2P partnership can foster bi-directional
learning through joint reflection (Eisen, 2000):
It’s been really valuable listening to other people’s teaching ideas and experiences
and thinking about ways to adopt them …. Learning and teaching, it’s very much
a two-way thing … Or six ways in this case [pointing to four Silver Sessionals and
two BEL+T members].
Individual learning was also described:
Finding a way to articulate what we are doing has been great. Because I think
all of us are instinctively, intuitively teaching and doing things, and reinventing
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Collaboration in Higher Education
ourselves every single day, and these sessions helped us to learn some language
around what we’re doing. … Just finding more ways to articulate these things has
been really really valuable.
Small actions that made these participants feel important and valued were also
highlighted, reinforcing a commitment to the collaborative process. When asked about
what attracted them to the opportunity, one participant remembered the recruitment
invitation: ‘You had me at the email title. It says, “BEL+T chooses you”. It’s like, of
course, yes … I’ll say “Yes!”’
Conclusion
The Teaching Tips and Tricks and PD project is an example of a P2P partnership focused
on co-design of learning experiences for others – in this case for sessional colleagues –
but has also highlighted to BEL+T the crucial value of such collaborative partnerships,
and the opportunities these offer to members of an inclusive HE landscape. There
are ambitions to extend the programme in future semesters, and to highlight the rich
experiences of sessional colleagues, by involving them in collaborative PD responses to
more subject-specific teaching challenges.
Review of the design and delivery of the ABP Teaching Tips and Tricks pilot
has identified some key contributing factors we need to maintain for successful
collaborative partnerships with sessional colleagues: ensuring a sense of being valued;
supporting inclusion; and recognizing personal agency. It is sobering to acknowledge
that these describe atypical experiences for sessional teachers. The central importance
of collaboration to learning in HE emerged through participants’ reflections, and the
development of shared languages, nuance and understandings. The recognition of
‘invisible collaborators’ – the previous teachers and mentors who contributed to this
work through their influence – highlights the enduring impact of social learning and
the lessons that can be passed on to others through quality collaboration for PD and
learning.
Acknowledgements
BEL+T would like to acknowledge the contribution of our four Silver Sessionals:
Dr Anna Hooper, Dhanika Kumaheri, Joel Benichou and Katie Skillington, who have
given permission for their names to be included in this case study. Without their
important contribution to the collaborative process, this work would not have been
possible.
The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
for its continued support of research into best practice teaching and learning for built
environments disciplines.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
49
Bringing Research to Life: Enhancing Research Skills
through Collaborative Storytelling
Laura Barclay, Sharon Bittner, Anne-Kathrin Reck and
Rhiannon Parry Thompson
Storytelling as a shared interest and used as a catalyst for this collaborative
project.
We used storytelling to foster students’ development of research skills by
uncovering local stories to create narratives.
Storytelling offers a place where students and staff can come together to
deepen team working via a creative, non-assessed task.
For us it enhanced staff understanding of different support roles within the
institution.
It raised student awareness of local historical personalities and the University’s
place and context – providing students with a deeper sense of belonging.
Prologue
Collaborations are beneficial to all participants, from designers of an activity to the peer
groups that participate (Crookendale, 2020; Fox et al., 2011; Montgomery & Miller,
2011). In September 2019, three Learning Developers at the University of Portsmouth
hosted a staff-facing symposium on ‘Storytelling in Learning Development’ to members
of the wider Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)
community. This event arose from a shared interest in using storytelling in professional
practice. Inspired by the symposium, the Learning Developers collaborated with
an Assistant Faculty Librarian to create the student-facing Bringing Research to Life
workshop. This is an extra-curricular, non-assessed, research skills workshop designed to
demystify the research process and encourage student engagement with non-traditional
materials and digital historical resources. Students were invited to find evidence to create
short, personal narratives of historical figures with connections to the local area.
Our work was grounded in our belief that storytelling is a powerful tool for generating
and exploring questions, accessing different kinds of knowledge and helping us to
understand the world and our place within it. As Tahir Shah (2008, 152), in Arabian
nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams, so astutely observed, ‘stories are a communal
currency of humanity’. Furthermore, the use of storytelling ‘frees’ the student from the
conventions of academic writing, but still encourages research skills, logic, criticality
and simply writing. Since our students had not been instructed in storytelling for
academic purposes per se, we applied the simple 4 P principle. The stories constructed
revolved around historical personalities (=people) with a connection to Portsmouth
(=place), were evolved according to what students found in their research (=plot) and
served our overall goal (=purpose) of enhancing the participants’ engagement, sense of
belonging, critical and creative skills in a third space setting for learning development.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
This case study highlights the benefits of collaborative working with colleagues to
improve student outcomes. For us it contributed to staff understanding of different
support roles within the institution, as well as offering a place where students could
come together to deepen knowledge of research and team working within a creative,
non-assessed task.
Once upon a Time …
Whilst our work practices differ owing to the requirements of our respective cohorts,
the process of co-planning, co-implementing and co-evaluating this workshop has
allowed us to find synergy in our approaches to facilitating student learning (MontielOverall, 2005). With our personal relationships already established through previous
collaborative work, we felt that we could work together effectively (Pham, 2019)
and explore new ways to address issues that we had noticed in relation to students’
approaches to academic writing and use of sources in their academic work.
In early planning meetings, we distributed the workload to allow each person to
contribute to an integral part of the workshop, whilst ensuring that work was not
duplicated. The content and structure of the workshop were then devised and delivered
as a whole group.
From Ivy to Helen & John
The premise of the workshop was inspired by an imaginative narrative about the life
of Ivy Williams, written by Professor Matthew Weait, former Dean of the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. Set at the end of
her life, Imagining Ivy Williams (Weait, n.d.) presents Ivy reflecting on her life and
reminiscing about her numerous achievements. The details woven into Weait’s narrative
were gathered from sources including photographs, personal correspondence and
official documents such as Ivy’s last Will and Testament, and referenced via footnotes
throughout. At the start of Bringing Research to Life, students were given a page from
Imagining Ivy Williams and asked to comment on what could be learnt about Ivy, and
to identify the source of the information. This presented students with an example of
the type of personal narrative that we aimed to create later in the session.
In the workshop, students were given the choice of researching one of six people,
each of whom had a connection to Portsmouth or the wider local area and chosen also
for the potential links to students’ academic subject areas:
Nancy Astor – the first woman in the UK to take her seat in the House of
Commons
Arthur Conan Doyle – goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club
Helen Duncan – last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735
Katharine Furse – director of the Women’s Royal Naval Service
John Jea – believed to have founded the first Black majority church in the UK
John Pounds – inspired the creation of Ragged schools
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
51
In addition to helping students develop their research and teamwork skills, this
activity would provide students with the opportunity to learn about the local area so as
to enhance their sense of belonging within the civic and academic community.
We sited the workshop in the library, the heart of the University community, to
entice students to use non-traditional materials and digital historical resources for
their research. To facilitate the research phase of the workshop, we produced a resource
pack in order to give students a starting point for their explorations. The range of
sources suggested was based upon the librarian’s professional experience and included
primary source and newspaper archives, art, architecture and photographic resources,
statistics, maps, government documents, legal resources, and paper book stock. The
pack was made accessible to attendees via a shared Google document, with clickable
links to the online resources.
The Workshop: Inter-disciplinary and Collaborative
Students from our respective faculties were invited to participate in the workshop
and could undertake the research portion of the session individually, in pairs or in
small groups. Then, for the storytelling element, groups were combined based on the
characters chosen. This led to inter-disciplinary groups working towards a shared goal
of creating a narrative through weaving together disparate pieces of information found
by the group members. Group work allowed students to see how they had approached
the task from different angles and gave them the opportunity to develop essential team
working and communication skills (Carruthers, 2021).
During the students’ discussions, we each worked with a group to help students find
ways to incorporate the diverse information into a coherent creative text. For example,
a student who researched Helen Duncan discovered where she lived and conducted
her seances, and used the library’s Special Collections Map Library to find a map of
this area during the time that Helen occupied the property. The map revealed that a
school was in the same area, which was then incorporated into a narrative where Helen
could hear the school children playing in the playground whilst she was preparing for
a seance.
The narratives that students created were presented to the rest of the group, creating
a sort of feedback loop of exchange. The stories presented ranged from bullet-pointed
lists and spider diagrams, to full prose. In each case, we encouraged students to include
appropriate references and to explain the range of sources that had been generated by
their research and harnessed in their creative stories.
And in the End …
In hindsight, it is apparent that clearer direction during the story creation phase would
be helpful. At first, students tended to report information rather than create a narrative
that included details. Therefore, in future it could be helpful to suggest a specific
moment in the subject’s life as a starting point and provide students with a narrative
structure.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
However, we successfully managed to apply the 4 Ps to our workshop setting. The
historical personalities formed the initial hook, created interest and were linked to our
locality, Portsmouth. The participants found out key information and put together a
creative plot that they presented. Overall, the workshop served a strong purpose of
bringing students together in a powerful place to enhance their research skills and
introduce them to a plethora of resources valuable for their future academic work. It
also brought us, as a team, closer together.
Epilogue
Our collaboration not only brought together colleagues from different faculties but also
utilized the knowledge base of our academic librarians. Creating this workshop has
broadened the practitioners’ knowledge base by working with colleagues and across
areas of the institution that were previously unfamiliar. Through participating in this
project, we have developed a clearer understanding of each other’s role in supporting
students, as well as forming new and closer working relationships, which places us in a
good position to identify and pursue further inter-faculty collaboration opportunities.
We believe that the key to a successful collaboration is to work with colleagues
who share a common interest. Our commitment to using storytelling in our work will
continue, with the development of a workshop where students will use items from the
Library’s Special Collections to reflect on their experience as members of their academic
and civic communities. It is hoped that this will help students to cultivate a sense of
belonging to both these communities. We are looking forward to the next chapter of
using storytelling in our diverse roles to strengthen the support of student learning.
Approaching Blended Learning through Teaching
Team Collaboration: Lessons from an AU
Postgraduate Accounting Programme
Katherine Herbert, Julia Lynch and Humayun Murshed
This study showcases the importance of a collaborative approach within
teaching teams to successfully engage with both domestic and international
students to create a holistic learning experience for all.
The subject teaching teams, like any team-based collaborative group, are
a prime example of the challenges of balancing cohesion of ideas and
experiences based on the varying levels of teaching and industry experiences
within the team.
The teaching approach taken and the integration of the learning resources
developed helped build blended learning experiences that fostered
self-directed learning.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
53
Introduction
The focus of this case study is the intentional collaborative practices in teams teaching
across multiple locations, in blended mode and with a largely international cohort
(Ali et al., 2015; Heng, 2019; Huang & Turner, 2018; McKenzie et al., 2020). This study
is an example of how this context is being addressed in a postgraduate programme at
an AU university.
Our investigation looked closely at subject teaching teams whose team members
teach in multiple locations, working together in terms of subject knowledge and
classroom delivery. The questions addressed were:
1. What insights can be drawn from the collaborative nature of the teaching teams
to better understand the community of learning practice that exists in the
international on-campus cohorts?
2. How can these insights inform the blended learning design that includes spaces
and opportunities to ease international students into their new learning context?
The Programme
Developed to satisfy the academic requirements of the professional accounting bodies in
AU and NZ, the Masters of Professional Accounting (MPA) is an accredited programme
that allows students to transition into the profession from either a non-accounting
undergraduate qualification or an overseas accounting degree not recognized in AU
or NZ. As such, international students were primarily enrolled into this programme.
At our university, the programmes are run across seven campuses spread across three
states. The subjects consist of fundamental accounting principles, compliance and
regulatory knowledge, as well as industry-specific skills. These subjects are delivered
both online and on campus, with subject materials designed to cater to both modes of
delivery. All subject materials are provided through the university’s LMS, Blackboard.
In 2018, the internal course review identified areas of the programme needing
improvements focused on the need to deliver subject content that optimized development
of subject knowledge and skills. It also sought to enhance learning experiences by
motivating on-campus students to effectively and efficiently use both online and
classroom spaces. Furthermore, it was necessary to address students whose first
language was not English, to create inclusive learning that eases international students’
transition into a new learning environment and satisfies the accreditation requirements
for the profession. Therefore, the teams teaching the programme collaborated to design
successful blended learning experiences across the subjects that made up the programme.
The Subject Teaching Teams
The programme consists of twelve subjects and therefore twelve subject teaching teams
were involved in designing and delivering the learning. Each team in this programme
was made up of two to five members drawn from academics from multiple campuses.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
In our institution, there is a minimum expectation of engagement and
communication within subject teaching teams. The lead teaching academic, the
Subject Convenor (SC), coordinates the teams, the learning activities, resources and
topics to be covered in the subject. Sessional staff are then brought in based on location
and number of students. While the make-up of the subject teaching teams appears
transitory, the reality is many of the sessional teaching staff have taught at the university
for quite some time and have an established working relationship with each other.
The decision was made that the challenges faced by the students enrolled in this
programme would benefit from a disruption of this hierarchical pyramid, to draw
on the voices and expertise of the many experienced practitioners involved. Whereas
previously, the SC would take a lead role, here they were encouraged to become more of
a facilitator, initiating discussion and conversation – bringing teams together to discuss
the overall programme and subject design. A more collaborative work ethic and practice
developed through which authentic steps towards implementing the design would be
intentional and cooperative. A more holistic picture of the strengths and needs of the
students emerged alongside the surfacing of opportunities for effective blended learning.
Team members are made up of transnational academics with various teaching and
industry experiences in AU and overseas. In most cases, the academics who teach in
the programme are graduates from the programme itself; have come from non-English
speaking backgrounds; and have worked in accounting and finance in AU and overseas.
The diverse make-up of the subject teaching teams afforded us the opportunities to
utilize multiple perspectives, particularly from those, in the city-based campuses, who
teach international students on campus.
The Learners
Students enrolled in this programme predominantly came from Asian countries with
English as a second language. English as the teaching language was not the only hurdle
in transitioning into an AU university and PG programme where the terminology
used for the accounting profession in AU and NZ varied significantly to those used in
the students’ home countries. Students from this demographic typically prefer to have
structured guidance and instructor-led information that feeds into assessments, and
may need further encouragement to engage in self-directed learning. At the same time,
all students need additional motivation – an understanding of ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ –
to engage actively with subject content and resources, online and in class (Heng, 2019).
This often poses challenges in motivating students to apply the principles of critical
thinking and self-directed learning in their learning process. It was important that the
subject design addressed this.
Therefore, two key challenges faced the teaching teams in this programme. The first
one was to enable international students to transition into the AU university context
due to the language barrier and a sense of not belonging (Ali et al., 2015; Huang &
Turner, 2018). Second, there was evidence that students were not actively engaging
with subject materials and self-directed learning activities unless directly covered in
the synchronous classroom arena online or on campus. This phenomenon has been
found in other universities across the globe especially where students are accustomed
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
55
to coming to class and expect an expert to stand in front of the classroom delivering
information (Heng, 2019).
To address these issues, the teaching teams developed a blended learning project.
The Blended Learning Project
Blended learning generally refers to the delivery of learning through a combination of
online and face-to-face (Castro, 2019) teaching and materials. Furthermore, blended
learning has come to encompass high-impact quality learning and teaching practices
through intentional design of learning experiences (McKenzie et al., 2020; Prion &
Mitchell, 2018). A three-phase strategy was developed under the Blended Learning
Project to harness the multiple perspectives of the subject teaching teams to enhance
student learning and engagement. The project aimed to capture in three phases:
1. insights from the subject teaching teams to understand the community of learning
practice that exists among on campus students;
2. strategically designed online resources and tools that will remove on-campus
(both domestic and international) students’ resistance to completing self-directed
learning activities; and
3. opportunities for international students to ease into and transition successfully
into the AU HE context.
The Collaborative Teaching Model
Teaching in HE provides many opportunities for collaboration (Walsh & Kahn, 2009).
In our case, we acknowledged that a more collaborative teaching model and a more
direct collaboration within the teaching teams were important and therefore coworking and co-creation would be intentionally built into this project.
The key to seeing any success in Phase One of the project was to harness the
experiences and knowledge of the members of the subject teaching teams who already
had a process of reflecting on and discussing preparations for their subjects’ next
delivery. We decided to build on this process. As part of the course review tasks and
actions, we organized focus group discussions on each campus, acknowledging that
expertise and experience reside implicitly within individuals (Walsh & Kahn, 2009).
These spaces were our opportunity to capture the expertise and experiences explicitly
by gathering all teaching team members to discuss the course review outcomes and
expected actions. Each member was asked to share their experiences, and report on
strategies that worked and did not work. The responses collated provided us with key
themes and points about subject delivery feedback, as well as online resources design
and use in multiple delivery modes. The result of this was the development of a whole
programme approach which focused on strategic use of online resources and tools that
complemented on-campus, synchronous classes.
In Phase Two of the project, the subjects first encountered by all students in their first
year on the programme would incorporate more fundamental learning experiences,
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Collaboration in Higher Education
while the succeeding subjects would then build students confidence with self-directed
learning and application of skills through workshop-type learning activities. The first
four subjects studied incorporated induction activities, such as the exploration of the
Blackboard space, signposted as activities to engage with before on-campus or online
meetings would occur. To encourage participation, students were provided with online
access to their textbooks for free. It was revealed during the focus group discussion that
many international students would not purchase the textbook due to cost. User analytics
for eBook access showed that this intervention led to high numbers of downloads, with
students showing evidence of engaging with readings prior to coming to class.
In Phase Three of the project, learning activities were deliberately designed to
explicitly guide students’ learning in-class and online. Each resource and learning
activity were embedded in each subject based on the characteristic of the content
and the context of our learners, so that students had a purpose for engaging with
the resource. It was explicitly explained to students that resources provided could be
accessed at any time, and multiple times which sought to encourage them to learn
outside the scheduled classes. This enabled a blended learning experience where online
and face-to-face content were integrated and complemented each other.
Outcomes
While we accepted that the students might have been expecting to have an expert ‘talk
at them’, we needed the subject teaching teams to reinforce the students’ role in their
own learning. We achieved this by removing unambiguous content, clear signposting
and directions with respect to readings, resources and activities which needed to be
engaged with before the next class (Prion & Mitchell, 2018). This was reinforced by
teaching team members through online discussion boards and announcements.
In the synchronous classes, whether in online meetings or on-campus classes,
workshop activities were actively promoted and integrated. Students would work
together on problems based on their readings and asynchronous activities. These
would then be discussed with the ‘expert’ to satisfy those students that wished for
more teacher-led input. Thereby, we did not completely remove the expectation
that the teaching academic is the expert, but we provided opportunities for students
unfamiliar with this more dialogic type of learning to see how they can build their
self-directed learning skills. Taking a more collaborative teaching approach and with
a renewed focus on the blended learning experience with a consistent message across
the programme enabled students together to take advantage of self-directed learning.
Conclusion
Many students fail to see ‘the point’ of self-directed learning, due to various educational
and cultural experiences and expectations. Studies in the UK (Huang & Turner, 2018)
and in the United States (Heng, 2019) point particularly to the cultural context of learning
for students who come from more transmissive systems as the main reason international
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
57
students find it challenging to transition into Western or English universities. We chose
to address these interlinked challenges collaboratively and creatively.
The subject teaching teams, like any team-based collaborative group, are a prime
example of the challenges of balancing cohesion of ideas and experiences based on the
varying levels of teaching and industry experiences within the team. This balancing
act is essential to achieving a unified and fulfilled teaching team, creating a coherent
and purposive learning experience for students who can equitably engage with the
learning activities on offer (Minett-Smith & Davis, 2020). In our case, the coming
together of the different teams and joint approach to redesign the programme led to a
more integrated learning experience for students.
Recommendations for Practice
This case study showcases the power of collaborating to design a blended learning
model which encouraged students, who perhaps do not position themselves as
agents in their own learning, to engage in self-directed learning as part of a holistic
curriculum designed to aid transition into and through a professional course and a
Western university. Our unified approach encouraged students to see the purpose of
those blended activities and thus also facilitated a change in mindset, so that students
started to see the teaching academic move from ‘expert’ to ‘facilitator’. Future work in
this area would be in moving towards students becoming active partners in, and coconstructors of, their learning, building on the opportunities to collaborate with the
facilitator-teaching academics.
Developing Twenty-first-century Skills through
Meaningful Cross-institutional Collaborative
International Community Service Projects
Pranit Anand and Byron Tsz Kit Lui
This case study shares a collaborative learning activity that was developed
between two institutions in AU and HK.
The group work involved students from AU and HK working together on
social projects for NGOs located in a third country.
The case study highlights challenges and makes suggestions for other
educators interested in developing similar initiatives such as addressing the
differences that exist between educators, students and institutions across
social, cultural, linguistic and geographic boundaries.
Based on our experience and research, we suggest identifying collaborative
institutional partners with similar intent, and being flexible to accommodate
differences in timelines, expectations, assessment protocols and compliance
requirements.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
Background and Context
Collaboration, teamwork and intercultural competencies are widely accepted as
important twenty-first-century transformative skills (Martin, 2018; OECD, 2018)
and group work is acknowledged as an important part of HE pedagogy. However,
designing group work activities in HE that engage and motivate can be challenging.
Common challenges identified by both students and educators around group
work involve ‘free-riding’, unequal allocation of workloads, lack of leadership and
dominating group members (Davies, 2009; Jaques, 2007; Robinson, 2013). Group
work activities become even more complicated when the classes include diverse
cultural groups with significant differences in expectations, familiarity with language
and other academic conventions and influences (Davies, 2009). These challenges are
compounded even further when group work involves assessment. These differences
can lead to unwanted consequences such as resistance and non-cooperation to
withdrawing from HE altogether.
However, the issue is not just that students resist group work and group assignments.
Assessment processes in HE tend to be very ‘dualistic’ (Crawford et al., 2020), that
is, they tend to favour certain rational, individualistic and disembodied ways of
thinking that in themselves mitigate against peer-to-peer learning. Universities
typically have very strict policies and procedures around assessments, often as a
requirement from external accreditation bodies (Dawson, et al., 2013), leaving
little room for innovations particularly around cross-institutional collaborative
assessments. Furthermore, most assessments tend to focus on very specific learning
outcomes with little emphasis on developing the whole student within a globalized
workplace (Clifford & Montgomery, 2017). Consequently, many university students
do not get the opportunity that group work can provide to engage with diverse
ideas and challenges, and ways of solving these challenges through intercultural
interactions.
This case study presents the outcomes of a cross-institutional collaborative
international community service project that aimed to help students gain real-world
experience working with social service organizations and appreciate the challenges of
working across social, cultural, linguistic and geographically dispersed groups.
Cross-institutional Collaborative Learning Activity
A collaborative ‘assessment for learning’ activity was developed between UOW
College AU and the Community College of the City University of HK (now UOW
College HK). Students from each of the institutions, located in AU and HK,
respectively, were brought together to form transnational groups tasked to work
together to identify, develop and deploy a social media solution (e.g. increase audience
participation) for an NGO located in a third country. The separate geographical
locations of the group members and the NGO that they worked for, as well as the
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
59
task of working with a ‘real’ organization, provided students with a challenging yet
authentic learning experience as they had to negotiate various spatial, technological,
cultural, communicative, creative and linguistic challenges while developing a reallife solution for a real ‘client’.
The students collaborated with each other across time and space to identify an
NGO that they could support. One member of each group was required to contact the
organization to discuss their needs and requirements and articulate a ‘brief ’. The group
then worked on the problem presented by the NGO and divided the workload among
themselves to complete the task. Although the types of tasks that students worked on
were diverse between groups, typical things would involve developing social media
strategies and the mock-up sites, marketing and promotional plans, etc. The final
solution was then submitted to the NGO for approval, deployment and handover. All
this was done using relevant communication technologies negotiated between the
students and the NGO.
Each group submitted a portfolio of their work to their host institution, i.e. HK
students to their tutors in HK and AU students to their tutors in AU for evaluation.
This portfolio included annotations of all their work, all communications between
the students, the work submitted to the organization and a link to the outputs they
created, feedback from the organization and a comprehensive personal reflection
about their engagement in this activity including challenges and learnings. As part
of the submissions students also had to do an in-class presentation explaining their
work, and students from AU and HK had to participate, either via a live stream or
(as it occurred more often) as a pre-recorded video as part of the presentation. That
is, students from HK recorded a video for their group members in AU to use in their
presentation in AU and vice versa.
The students’ portfolios were marked using a set of common criteria such as:
relevance and appropriateness of communication tools used;
collaborative endeavour;
identification of relevant information needed to solve real-life problem;
evaluation and analysis of information obtained; and
presentation of information to NGO and within portfolio.
Evaluation Voices
The feedback from the NGOs was extremely positive and shown in the sentiments in
the following statement:
Dear
project, especially our media sites and fanpage. It is good to find such kind
volunteers, and your dedication and hard work are greatly appreciated.
(NGO located in Vietnam)
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Collaboration in Higher Education
Similarly, the students enjoyed the opportunity to work with students from a
different country and valued the experience. Many of their sentiments are reflected in
the following statement:
It is a pleasure for us to work with an overseas student. He (student name) helped
us a lot in doing our project. The most interesting thing is that he can already
share his work related to the NGO with us and we include his work in our report
as well. His work is quite effective and useful for us which shows that our group
members are hardworking and responsible students. We are very thankful to him
for helping us a lot.
(Student from HK)
Overall, the collaboration was deemed a success, with positive feedback from all
those involved; yet, some challenges were encountered along the way.
Challenges Encountered
Authentic, collaborative cross-institutional projects, especially ones that involve
students located in different countries, are uncommon within HE. Projects that also
require students to work with external NGOs on real-life problems are even more rare.
There were two main categories of challenges encountered in this project: first were the
challenges that the educators faced while designing the learning activity across the two
institutions, and second, the challenges the students had to face while engaging in the
learning experience.
For the educators the major challenge was the fact that the two cohorts of students
from the different institutions were studying two different courses. The educators
needed to work and communicate well among themselves to refine the common
elements of the two courses to let both students from AU and HK fully achieve the
expected learning outcomes.
Due to the nature of this project there were some expected challenges for students,
for example, working productively and harmoniously within their cross-cultural, crossnational teams to meet a real client brief. However, the depth and breadth of the students’
work revealed that providing such authentic group work experiences actually negated
some of the more ‘usual’ problems – the resistance, the complaints, the stress. Further,
there were challenges that could not be predicted, but this was all part of giving students
as much authentic experience as possible within a safe, structured learning environment.
Recommendations
For other educators interested in designing similar collaborative, cross-cultural
learning experiences for their students, it would be recommended to find partner
institutions and educators with similar ideas and goals. The educators involved
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
61
need to develop close working relationships and ‘calibrate’ their thinking and
expectations well before the task is presented to the students and explore any
potential challenges that may arise. In our case we used Google Docs to share all
important files and worked on those together, synchronously and asynchronously.
All discussions were conducted via phone and emails, and issues addressed in a
collegial way.
Significantly both parties should be willing to be flexible in their approaches and
willing to make changes to suit the schedules of other parties. In our experience these
included negotiating start and end dates between AU and HK as the semester start and
end dates were very different. Both educators had to make changes to their assessment
schedules to ensure start and end times were somewhat aligned, and also ensure their
students had ample time to prepare for the project as they worked across their different
time zones and programme schedules.
Further, there also had to be negotiation around the assessments and common
marking criteria. In our experience it worked well to have some important common
criteria, but also provide flexibility to the individual institutions to expect certain
things from their own students based on local curriculum and policy requirements.
Conclusion
Projects of this nature are challenging to get off the ground. In the first instance,
identifying institutional partners who are willing to collaborate on cross-institutional
projects for students can be challenging. Also, getting both parties to agree on
common goals and criteria requires a significant amount of flexibility, understanding
and cooperation. In many ways, once the teaching team is able to demonstrate these
qualities, it becomes easier to transfer these experiences to the students.
The activity enabled students to be involved in the design of the activity, deciding
the different roles of the group members, the types of communication tools and
channels they preferred to use, the organization they wanted to work with, and
then all the processes involved in the negotiation of the task and the decisions as
to what the solutions should be. Engaging in this project the students collaborated
together to identify needs and provide solutions: a social media strategy which
the NGO can continue to use long after the students have completed their projects
with them.
This rich collaboration obviously develops students’ ability to communicate
and negotiate across cultures; it involves them in authentic, collaborative project
management; it builds confidence to undertake challenging tasks, with significantly
nuanced appreciation of diverse ways of thinking and doing things. Students have also
reported building life-long friendships with students from different countries. Many of
the processes that students engage with through these cross-institutional, international
projects help them develop many of the OECD (Martin, 2018; OECD, 2018) identified
twenty-first-century skills.
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Collaboration in Higher Education
Cross-disciplinary Collaborations for Sustainable Futures,
and a Vital and Relevant Academic Community
Diana J. Pritchard, Helen Connolly, Amanda Egbe, Mohamed Saeudy,
Paul Rowinski, James Bishop, Tamara Ashley and Nicholas Worsfold
A cross-disciplinary group of academics joined forces to design opportunities
to engage students in understanding and addressing locally relevant
environmental, economic and social challenges.
Our model can develop the relevant skills, knowledge and values that
universities must foster if they are to prepare students for fast changing
communities and workplaces, while supporting the communities they serve to
transition towards sustainable futures.
We harnessed our creativity in our autonomous ‘community of practice’
to organize university-wide events that comprise holistic, experiential and
interactive pedagogical approaches.
We created rich ‘social learning’ environments for students enhanced by the
inclusion of municipal, community and business representatives who shared
their expertise and created community-based learning.
Through evaluation using complementary tools and methods we evidenced
the impacts of the events, generating buy-in and resulting in the strategic
adoption of our model.
Introduction
The challenges of our rapidly changing climate, environments, cultures, populations
and labour markets require HE to ‘recognise, own, and engage with the most difficult
and intractable issues of our times’ (Sterling, 2019, 61; Pritchard, forthcoming). This
contrasts with prevailing practices that typically perpetuate paradigms of individualism,
inequalities and unsustainability and the exploitation of the environment and people
(Tilbury, 2011; Wals, 2015).
Reflecting the distilled features promoted by advocates for education for
sustainability, UNESCO (2020) calls for provision that is holistic, envisions change and
achieves transformation while building solidarity. This case study highlights how such
education provision can be created and become embedded through staff-led, informal
collaborations of a multi-disciplinary group operating outside formal governance
structures. Our group, the Sustainability Forum (SF), is based at an English university
and eight of us have contributed text or ideas which are reflected in this chapter.
We hope to contribute to discussions on collaboration by demonstrating the
significance of cross-disciplinarity, respect for autonomous academic spaces, and the
involvement of external organizations to achieve transformative outcomes that engage
students, staff and communities in change.
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63
Our SF practices take place at the University of Bedfordshire which is a WP and
regional university and is characterized by a high proportion of students who are the
first in the family to go to university, are mature and work part-time, while 60 per cent
students are from Black, Asian and minoritorized ethnic groups.
Our Sustainability Forum
At our teaching-led institution, a group of us sharing concerns for climate chaos,
environmental degradation, social injustice, human rights violations and conflict came
together informally, across four faculties, to establish the SF in 2014. We are based
in Performance, Art and Design, Media, Sociology, Biology, Sports Science, Business,
Accounting and Construction and in professional services. The SF has included
between twelve and fifteen academics (numbers fluctuating over the years), at different
levels of seniority. Crucially, there is no formalized membership: we each define our
degree of involvement.
By connecting with like-minded colleagues, we created a ‘domain of interest’
(Wenger, 1998) and overcame our isolation in our respective departments. We became
energized socially and intellectually. Our early decision that the SF’s primary aim
would be to engage students in learning about sustainably galvanized us across the
discipline spectrum. Specifically, we agreed to organize day-long university-wide
events that focus on local manifestations of key global challenges. We have run these
since 2016 and in this case study describe our ongoing and voluntary dedication to
develop student learning.
Pooling Efforts to Hold Community-based
Learning Events on Campus
For each event we selected a theme in which we have collective expertise, namely climate
change, human rights and migration, peace and justice, and health and well-being, with
a view to model practices which advance not just education about sustainability, but
education for sustainability. This requires facilitating student learning about changes in
the real world, developing their agency to identify creative solutions to problems and
effecting changes in themselves and the wider world.
We achieved this by stirring our creativity and drawing on our pedagogic experience
to design and pilot at the events a series of dynamic and immersive learning activities,
underpinned by the concept of ‘horizontal learning’ (Freire, 2005) characterized by
student partnership and co-creation. We included simulations, role-play and workshops
which were delivered in plenary or parallel sessions to deliver curriculum, to identify
project and community action projects and create networking opportunities.
Importantly, we pooled our contacts to invite representatives of relevant
community, civic and business organizations to these events, effectively rendering our
events ‘mass-learn-ins’ whereby everyone learnt from each other. These practitioners
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Collaboration in Higher Education
shared their experiences and perspectives, generating information of value for the
curriculum and as topics for authentic student projects, assessments or research. This
also created rich ‘social learning’ environments and, more specifically, a variation of
‘community-based learning’. Elsewhere such approaches have been demonstrated
to develop academic learning and competences relevant for sustainability and the
twenty-first century (Kuh, 2008; Wals, 2012).
While our events primarily served the students of SF members, we encouraged
participation by students and staff from the wider institution. Our events have involved
up to 200 people each time. Working alone, none of us individually could have
achieved this scale of event, nor felt able to be so innovative or risk-taking: together,
responsibility is spread.
Our Holistic Approach to Enhance Sustainability
The epistemological diversity represented in our SF enabled us to foster understandings
of interrelated social, environmental and economic complexity. Consequently, our
events were essentially holistic, nurturing learning – for students, staff and other
participants – which is more than the sum of individual disciplines. Integrating
disciplinary perspectives creates new transdisciplinary understandings of and
responses to complex issues.
For example, at the event on modern-day slavery, the combination of students
and staff from social sciences, media and construction led to wider understanding
of potential violations of human rights on construction projects. This resulted in the
expansion of awareness of project ethics as a core aspect of the taught curriculum.
Likewise, we co-taught some sessions, for example, combining Biology and Sociology
students to learn about the multiple and interrelated consequences of climate change
for migration: both human and non-human. Further, we used our event spaces to
exhibit work prepared by Art and Design students and showcase performances and
media productions.
We curated all our events to envision change by offering presentations on historical
trends. With a view to nurture competences that enable students to take action in the
creation of alternative futures, we were able to harness academic, civic and practitioner
expertise to provide background knowledge and understandings of past, present and
projected future changes such as relating to increases in global temperatures or forced
migration flows.
The heterogeneity of our event participants also served to lay the foundations for
students to ‘deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate
in the transformation of their world’ (Freire, 2000, 34). Specifically, this mix served to
leverage collective intelligence in the co-construction of sense-making of the challenges
and the identification of feasible actions to address local problems (Markova, 2015).
It also inspired change and increased the probability, as indicated elsewhere by
research, that the solutions identified will be followed through with tangible changemaking action (Peter & Wals, 2013).
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
65
We also created the contexts to enable students to identify where they can contribute
through projects, research or voluntary work, or what authentic assessments academics
could set by examining existing strategies and plans at different levels, such as the UN
Sustainable Development Goals, relevant civic strategies or campaigns of local NGOs.
Collaborative Evaluations and Research
Although the principal activity of our SF was the organization of these events, our
collaborations have extended, as represented in Figure 3.2, to include the evaluations
of the short- and long-term impacts and outcomes of our events. We have captured
these from digital feedback during the events, follow-up student and staff surveys,
detailed analysis of student grades, interviews with students, including upon their
graduation, and audits of course and module enhancements.
Figure 3.2 The scope of the SF: Key partners, activities and impacts.
Findings: Achieving Education Transformations
Our results suggest the ways in which our events comprised transformative education
for students (Mezirow, 1991). Many reported on the intense nature of the learning
experience, one stating that ‘this is the most [she had] ever had to think in [her] life!’
on account of being required to engage with complexity, shift from being a passive to
an active learner and gain new perspectives.
Students enthusiastically reported that their subjects ‘came alive’, while academics
noted in our survey (Figure 3.3) that their students became more engaged in their
studies, took increased ownership of them. Students also pursued activities of direct
relevance to their degrees, future careers, gaining (and following up) tangible ideas
for applied research projects or placements which reflect their inspiration to become
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Collaboration in Higher Education
Figure 3.3 Academic observations of the impacts of SF events on students. The x-axis
represents the number of responses of academic staff reporting each factor.
part of the solution. Academics also observed that students gained in confidence: a
fundamental aspect of empowerment and a consequence of the social mix and ethos
of co-production where students acknowledge that they were ‘treated as equals when
offering [their] ideas’. Importantly, students and staff reported they had ‘serious fun’ at
the events, despite the weight of the existential threats that the events focused on and
felt part of a vital community of learning.
As for academic staff, they both were motivated to attend the event and appreciated
them because they facilitated connecting with colleagues from other subject areas,
developing collaborative relationships and networking with external organizations
(Figures 3.4 and 3.5).
Our events, as collective endeavours, recover for academics what Holmwood et al.
(2016) identify as their loss of autonomy and collective influence over the direction
of universities. The same staff survey also revealed longer-term education changes
they had made, including curriculum changes, in at least twenty courses. This resulted
in academics incorporating event themes and materials into modules, the design of
authentic assessments and the creation of new modules.
This well-evidenced success was recognized which shortlisted us for a nationally
prestigious Award for Teaching Excellence 2017. Our evidenced impact also
secured university executive buy-in: our ‘grand challenge model’, community-based
pedagogies and professional development approaches have all been incorporated into
the university’s new education and sustainability strategies.
Conclusion
Our SF work demonstrates the powerful contributions that collaborative practices
can make to authentic curricula and powerful student learning. Through unleashing
creativity and solidarity, our SF generated learning fit for our time of rapid continuous
change. It offers a transferable model of practice indicative of what real-world
learning could look like to develop students’ understanding and embed education for
sustainability. For academics, such collaboration provides relief from the feeling of
disempowerment and isolation that they increasingly experience (Fazackerley, 2019).
Figure 3.4 Motivation of academics to attend the SF events. The x-axis represents the number of responses from academic staff reporting because
of each factor.
Figure 3.5 Impacts of academic participation in SF events on academic practices. The x-axis represents the number of responses of academic staff
reporting each factor.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning
69
We consider our collaborative practices, a hallmark of a vital academic community,
generating agency and contributing to the primary mission of HE: the social good,
and – in the context of increasing crises – averting ‘systemic global dysfunction’
(Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2015). These collaborations also appear to relieve anxieties: there
is something about being in a team where the burden of knowledge and creation of
solutions are shared. Given the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives
Matter movement, which spotlight the importance of relational well-being facilitated
by such staff-student and collegial interactions (Singh, 2020), this approach gains even
greater significance.
Although our work has had strategic impacts at our university, such collaborative
practices and education for sustainability remain marginal. Despite sector frameworks
incorporating cross-disciplinarity and sustainability into standards and expectations
for HE (QAA/Advance HE, 2021), it retains subject silos and perpetuates administrative
and bureaucratic systems that reward singular individual outcomes and curtail
pedagogical transformations. The support, celebration and reward for collaborative
practices have never been so urgent.
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Social Work England (2020). Home. https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/
Smith, M. K. (2002, 2009). Facilitating learning and change in groups’ in the encyclopaedia
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Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling
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Charlton, N., & Martin, A. (2018). Making the invisible visible. Journal of Academic
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Devereux, L., Wilson, K., Kiley, A., & Gunawardena, M. (2018). The proof of the
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Dixon, H., Hawe, E., & Hamilton, R. (2020). The case for using exemplars to develop
academic self-efficacy. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(3), 460–71.
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Hawe, E., Dixon, H., & Hamilton, R. (2021). Why and how educators use exemplars.
Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/ro.uow.
edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss3/010
Hendry, G. D., Bromberger, N., & Armstrong, S. (2011). Constructive guidance and
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Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge
University Press.
Wingate, U. (2018). Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative
instructional approach. Language Teaching, 51(3), 349–64.
Case Study: Co-producing a Skills-based Programme
Eisen, M. J. (2000). Peer learning partnerships: Promoting reflective practice through
reciprocal learning. Inquiry: Critical Thinking across the Disciplines, 19(3), 5–19.
Guldberg, K. (2008). Adult learners and professional development: Peer‐to‐peer learning
in a networked community. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 27(1), 35–49.
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career learning. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 7(4), 487–503. DOI:
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developing-transferrable-skills-university-student?utm_source=newsletter&utm_
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Dixon, H., Hawe, E., & Hamilton, R. (2020). The case for using exemplars to develop academic self-efficacy. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(3), 460-71. DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1666084
Hawe, E., Dixon, H., & Hamilton, R. (2021). Why and how educators use exemplars. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/ro.uow. edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss3/010
Hendry, G. D., Bromberger, N., & Armstrong, S. (2011). Constructive guidance and feedback for learning: The usefulness of exemplars, marking sheets and different types of feedback in a first year law subject. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 36(1), 1-11. DOI: 10.1080/02602930903128904
Maldoni, A. M. (2018). 'Degrees of deception' to degrees of proficiency: Embedding academic literacies into the disciplines. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 12(2), A102-A129. https://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/view/408
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Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press.
Wingate, U. (2018). Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach. Language Teaching, 51(3), 349-64.
Case Study: Co-producing a Skills-based Programme
Eisen, M. J. (2000). Peer learning partnerships: Promoting reflective practice through reciprocal learning. Inquiry: Critical Thinking across the Disciplines, 19(3), 5-19. https://philpapers.org/rec/EISPLP-4
Guldberg, K. (2008). Adult learners and professional development: Peer-to-peer learning in a networked community. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 27(1), 35-49. DOI: 10.1080/02601370701803591
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Hitch, D., Mahoney, P., & Macfarlane, S. (2018). Professional development for sessional staff in higher education: A review of current evidence. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(2), 285-300. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2017.1360844
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Crookendale, C. M. (2020). The art school and the library: A case study exploring disciplinary differences. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 39(1), 114-35. DOI: 10.1086/709816
Fox, R., Carpenter, C., & Doshi, A. (2011). Cool collaborations: Designing a better library experience. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 18(2-3), 213-27. DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2011.577699
Montgomery, S. E., & Miller, J. (2011). The third place: The library as collaborative and community space in a time of fiscal restraint. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 18(2-3), 228-38. DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2011.577683
Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). Toward a theory of collaboration for teachers and librarians. School Library Media Research, 8. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ965627.pdf
Pham, H. T. (2019). The application of structuration theory in studying collaboration between librarians and academic staff in universities in Australia and Vietnam. Information Research, 24(3). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1229378.pdf
Shah, T. (2008). In Arabian nights: A caravan of Moroccan dreams. Bantam.
Weait, M. (n.d.). Imagining Ivy Williams. https://www.academia.edu/169684/Imagining_ Ivy_Williams
Case Study: Approaching Blended Learning through Teaching Team Collaboration
Ali, F., Zhou, Y., Hussain, K., Kumar Nair, P., & Ari Ragavan, N. (2015). Does higher education service quality effect student satisfaction, image and loyalty? A study of international students in Malaysian public universities. Quality Assurance in Education, 24(1), 70-94. DOI: 10.1108/QAE-02-2014-0008
Castro, R. (2019). Blended learning in higher education: Trends and capabilities. Education and Information Technologies, 24, 2523-46. DOI: 10.1007/s10639-019- 09886-3
Heng, T. T. (2019). Understanding the heterogeneity of international students' experiences: A case study of Chinese international students in US universities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 23(5), 607-23. DOI: 10.1177/1028315319829880
Huang, R., & Turner, R. (2018). International experience, university support and graduate employability -perceptions of Chinese international students studying in UK universities. Journal of Education and Work, 31(2), 175-89. DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2018.1436751
McKenzie, S., Hains-Wesson, R., Bangay, S., & Bowtell, G. (2020). A team-teaching approach for blended learning: An experiment. Studies in Higher Education, 1-15. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2020.1817887
Minett-Smith, C., & Davis, C. L. (2020). Widening the discourse on team-teaching in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(5), 579-94. DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2019.1577814
Prion, S., & Mitchell, M. (2018). Content considerations for blended learning experiences. In J. Keengwe (Ed.), Handbook on research on blended learning pedagogies and professional development in higher education (pp. 102-21). IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5557-5.ch0006
Walsh, L., & Kahn, P. (2009). Collaborative working in higher education: The social academy. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Case Study: Developing Twenty-first-century Skills
Clifford, V., & Montgomery, C. (2017). Designing an internationalised curriculum for higher education: Embracing the local and the global citizen. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(6), 1138-51. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2017.1296413
Crawford, N., Kift, S., & Jarvis, L. (2020). Supporting student mental wellbeing in enabling education. In A. Jones, A. Olds, & J. G. Lisciandro (Eds.), Transitioning students in higher education: Philosophy, pedagogy and practice (pp. 161-70). Routledge.
Davies, W. (2009). Groupwork as a form of assessment: Common problems and recommended solutions. Higher Education, 58(4), 563-84. DOI: 10.1007/s10734-009- 9216-y
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Case Study: Cross-disciplinary Collaborations for Sustainable Futures Fazackerley, A. (2019, 21 May). 'It's cut-throat': Half of UK academics stressed and 40% thinking of leaving. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/ may/21/cut-throat-half-academics-stressed-thinking-leaving
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November 30, 2024
Quentin Allan
Auckland University of Technology, Faculty Member
Senior Fellow: UK Higher Education Academy
Dr Quentin Allan is a Senior Lecturer in the role of Learning Advisor for the Learning & Academic Engagement Team within Te Mātāpuna Library & Learning Services, Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
With a teaching background in language and literature, he has over 30 years’ experience in a range of educational environments (in New Zealand and overseas) including seven years teaching linguistics at the University of Hong Kong. As a materials developer for the prestigious TeleNex project (http://www.telenex.hku.hk/telec/pmain/opening.htm), he led a team of SFL grammarians in co-authoring a hyptertext pedagogic grammar database. He has collaborated on a variety of research projects, and published articles on corpus linguistics, asynchronous learning communities, pedagogic grammar and various aspects of literacies development.
Quentin identifies as Pākehā and demonstrates a sustained commitment to collaborating as tangata te Tiriti, engaging in research that is inclusive and practically oriented.
TEACHING STRENGTHS
• Three formal teacher training qualifications
• 30 years’ teaching experience
• Academic leadership (Head of Department, Paper Leader, Team Coordinator)
• Experience as teacher trainer and academic mentor
• Background in Systemic Functional Linguistics
• Embedding academic literacies in faculty programmes
• Developing learning and teaching materials in a range of media
• Working with undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Experience with a range of assessments
• Sensitivity to diversity
• Open to advances in digital pedagogies
RESEARCH STRENGTHS
• Coordinating research schedules
• Managing data collection
• Collegial approach to team-based research
• Drafting ethics applications
• Qualitative data collection and analysis
• Familiarity with a range of software including NVivo
• Trained oral history interviewer
• Hermeneutic phenomenology
• Corpus linguistics
• Research reports
• Conference presentations and panel discussions
• Publications: book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals
LINKS TO PUBLICATIONS
Papers
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Out of the Writing Centre and into the Classroom: Academic Literacies in Action
Christina Page
Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 2020
Writing and learning centre professionals have expertise in supporting the development of academic literacies but are typically positioned outside of departmental contexts, limiting their interaction with instructors in the disciplines. Small scale initiatives towards meaningful collaboration with faculty can create the dialogic space to move the work of academic literacies development into the classroom. This paper describes three collaborative projects in business, science, and arts disciplines to move instruction in academic literacies from a supplemental, outside of class model to an embedded, in-class delivery. Working towards collaborative projects enhances opportunities for writing centre professionals to impact their institutions while remaining flexible in delivering support in a variety of modes. These collaborative projects enhance the professional development of both teaching faculty and writing centre professionals, allowing both parties to gain insight on the often-imp...
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Book review: Working with academic literacies: case studies towards transformative practice. Lillis, T., Harrington, K., Lea, M.R. & Mitchell, S. eds
Mastin Prinsloo
2016
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Supporting academic literacies: University teachers in collaboration for change
Lotta Bergman
This article deals with an action research project, where a group of university teachers from different disciplines reflected on and gradually extended their knowledge about how to support students' academic literacy development. The project was conducted within a 'research circle' . "The Research Circle as a Resource in Challenging Academics' Perceptions of How to Support Students' Literacy Development in Higher Education." Canadian Journal of Action Research 15 (2): 3-20], in which the teachers engaged in a continuous dialogue where experience-based and research-based knowledge could meet. The two-year long process was divided into three phases: exchange of experiences and knowledge, small-scale empirical investigations in the participants own teaching, and presentations of the outcome of the research circle work. The main focus in this article is the second phase. The choice of small-scale-investigations, and how they were discussed and developed in the collaborative work, will be foregrounded as well as the changes that occurred in the participants' teaching practices and how the participants value the outcome of the research circle work. ARTICLE HISTORY . However, teachers can be reluctant to take responsibility for students' learning and language development, in relation to disciplinary content . According to Bailey (2010) the reluctance can be due to lecturers' feelings of uncertainty as to how such support could be designed and whether or not their competencies as teachers are adequate. Baileýs study also shows that an increased number of students, overloaded curriculums, and time constraints limits teachers' willingness to take responsibility for students' learning development. Teachers' uncertainty and ambivalence due to similar circumstances are confirmed in my previous research .
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Embedding Academic Literacies through Growing Student and Staff Communities
Charlotte Coleman
Journal of Academic Writing, 2020
In the UK, HE practical writing support has not kept pace with advances in our understanding of how students learn to write in their disciplines or greater comprehension of the nature of these discourses they are acquiring. Current institutional provision can be still be characterized as fragmented offering generic, deficit focused, skills-based instruction, despite such approaches being theoretically discredited. One alternative means to develop academic literacies in more inclusive and nuanced ways is to embed this work at a disciplinary level; while long recommended this model is unusual in the UK. This paper reviews approaches to embedding academic literacies work and reports on our attempts to embed writing development work within a social science department through an extended action research project which aimed to increase student mastery of academic literacies within one department. We focused on building opportunities for engagement using Writing Exemplars, Retreats and Wri...
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Academic literacies twenty years on: a community-sourced literature review
Alicja Syska
Cathy Malone
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education , 2019
In 1998, the paper 'Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach' by Mary Lea and Brian Street reinvigorated debate concerning 'what it means to be academically literate' (1998, p.158). It proposed a new way of examining how students learn at university and introduced the term 'academic literacies'. Subsequently, a body of literature has emerged reflecting the significant theoretical and practical impact Lea and Street's paper has had on a range of academic and professional fields. This literature review covers articles selected by colleagues in our professional communities of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), BALEAP the global forum for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) professionals, and the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW). As a community-sourced literature review, this text brings together reviews of wide range of texts and a diverse range of voices reflecting a multiplicity of perspectives and understandings of academic literacies. We have organised the material according to the themes: Modality, Identity, Focus on text, Implications for research, and Implications for practice. We conclude with observations relevant to these themes, which we hope will stimulate further debate, research and professional collaborations between our members and subscribers.
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