http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:9259 Our recent research investigated the experiences of educators teaching statistics as service courses at universities. We conducted interviews by email with participants from many countries and whose teaching reflects diverse settings, student groups and disciplines-a microcosm of higher education today. We now focus on the tools, artefacts and resources respondents identified as critical to developing their teaching. These include computer and internet technology; data sets, texts and research and human resources, such as master teachers or teaching pools. Teacher development can be characterised as "the enhancement of the knowledge and capabilities to function as a teacher" (Gordon & Fittler, 2004) and is bound up with student learning. Hence tools and artefacts harnessed by educators to develop their teaching are resources for enhancing student learning. Our approach draws on activity theory, based on the work of Vygotsky, Leont'ev and colleagues, and emphasising mastering tools in collective and individual development. Vygotsky extended the idea of physical tools as mediators of change to psychological tools or mental tools. Case studies from our investigation are used to explore how the educators constitute their teaching identities in relation to cultural tools. 2010-08-23T12:50:39.262Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:9258 The main role of assessment is to support learning, and any view of assessment implies a corresponding view of learning. Research on students’ conceptions of statistics, learning in statistics and assessment, suggests that there is a clear variation from narrow to broad views. Another dimension is students’ perceptions of their future professional roles and how that impacts on their present studies. In order to support the learning process, assessment should be structured in such a way as to make apparent to students the full range of variation in conceptions and to encourage them towards the broadest and most inclusive ideas. Further, it is important that the approach to assessment has coherence with the overall pedagogical approach. 2010-08-23T12:50:34.204Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:2738 In this paper, we describe and investigate three aspects of learning mathematics: intention, approach and outcome. These aspects have emerged from interviews with students where their experience of learning mathematics, their understanding of mathematics as a discipline field, and their perception of work as a mathematician were the objects of study. We focus here on the complex nature of the students' intentions for learning, approaches to learning and outcomes of learning. We present a theoretical model based on our research findings, aiming to build on and expand earlier descriptions of students' learning approaches, such as the surface and deep approach of Marton and Saljo (1976) and the 3P model of Biggs (1999). 2010-05-11T04:54:33.639Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:338 The term curriculum is familiar in school education, but more ambiguous in its usage in a higher education context. Although it is frequently used in academic staff discussions, policy and planning documents, and to describe advisory bodies, its usage is inconsistent and multifarious. This article reports a phenomenographic study of the ways in which academics conceive of the curriculum in higher education. It examines the variation in perceptions of curriculum, which is critiqued through the work of school curriculum theorists, who utilise Habermas's theory of knowledge-constitutive interests. The intention of this article is to explore the epistemologies and assumptions that underpin these conceptions, in order to promote an inclusive and shared vocabulary as a basis for curriculum development. 2010-05-10T05:04:18.927Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:6946 This paper reports on a project involving software selection in the context of a curriculum redesign of a university level Japanese language program. The project aimed to improve learning outcomes, increase flexibility in student access, and increase flexibility in approaches to teaching and learning, through the use of a variety of software packages and digital resources. In doing so, an imperative was to ensure the solutions adopted were manageable within the existing organisational arrangements of the Department and the University. The selection process has led to the development of three instruments which form the CICTO Framework for Software Selection. 2010-03-22T08:15:15.858Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:336 "Quality teaching", "curriculum change" and "innovative practice" are just a few of the common phrases used by university academics as a basis for defining and justifying their actions as educators and policy-makers. Yet our analysis of 25 interviews with academics revealed differences in their conceptions of these terms. While the impact of such disparity upon the clarity of discussions across campus is not known, it is likely to be significant. We suggest there is a real need for academics and developers to work together to identify the meanings behind the language of higher education. By working collaboratively and contributing individual expertise, academics and developers can develop converging understandings and better shape the university curriculum. This paper explores ways in which we can work together to achieve this goal. 2010-01-20T01:07:36.127Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:852 New technologies rather than educational principles and philosophies have tended to dictate the shape of development in the world of e-learning. Giving educators an active and determining rather than a passive role in the development of learning systems is vital if e-learning is to realise its transformative potential in education in the 21st century. Many of the currently available learning technologies and systems, generally devised by technicians rather than educators, have offered limited room for creative or effective teaching. The limitations of these systems- their time consuming nature and their failure to adapt the technology to take account of educational contexts - need to be understood, acknowledged and overcome. The next generation of learning technologies and systems will only take us forward if educators have a much greater stake in controlling how they are developed. The article identifies some key theoretical and practical issues which should be given priority in newly emerging learning technologies and systems. 2010-01-20T01:00:58.749Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:1559 Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical critique of the concept of the knowledge-based development. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-disciplinary critique is discussed. Findings – Provides cross-disciplinary analysis and critique of the concept of the knowledge-based development. Originality/value – This paper provides a deeper analysis of the knowledge-based development and proposes a broadening of the current paradigm on the economic development by integrating psychological and anthropological points-of-view. 2010-01-20T00:52:45.671Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:4672 4 page(s) 2010-01-20T00:16:21.628Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:4673 15 page(s) 2010-01-20T00:16:20.394Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:5452 The terms 'creativity' and 'engagement' are used broadly throughout the literature and are in common usage in our education and design language. Students, however, understand these terms in unexpected ways and this can sometimes cause a disjunction between the teacher's intention for the learning activity and the ways in which the student may go about it. In this article we tease out the relationships between engagement and creativity for student learning in design. Our data suggest that engagement relies on certain conditions and attributes that have to be met before a student makes a personally meaningful commitment to study. Engagement here means some form of interlocking between the student and the task, or some form of attentiveness facilitated by the teacher or the environment. By creativity we mean the meshing between person, process and product which is then appreciated by the broader design community. We suggest that understanding creativity as a complex attribute contributes to the nature and quality of student engagement with their learning and the profession. 2010-01-20T00:07:49.733Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:5836 This paper discusses the perceptions on the part of a large cohort of Sydney-based second year university accounting students of the benefits of group-work in developing transferable skills in teamwork, self-management, and planning and organising. The Australian accounting profession and business employers have identified these skills as lacking in accounting graduates. A questionnaire was administered to obtain students' perceptions of assessed group-work and the results were compared with three other similar studies of smaller cohorts of students. Overall, students considered assessed group-work to be a positive experience and a vehicle to develop transferable skills. The paper elaborates on elements in effective group-work design and students' comments which raise the need to integrate and scaffold assessed group-work in the accounting curriculum. 2010-01-20T00:03:28.244Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:6654 "2006" 2010-01-19T23:52:38.744Z ]]>