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Vol. 6 No. 2 (2009)

Published: 1 August 2009

Articles

  • Editorial 6.2

    Geraldine E. Lefoe

    Welcome to the second issue of Volume Six of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. We are celebrating our inclusion within international database collections which now includes EBSCO, ERIC and Cabell. In addition within the Australasian research context JUTLP has been allocated a B ranking by ERA. Given that the journal was started in 2004 and is fully online we are pleased to achieve this and look forward to enhancing the journal rating in the future. Our fully electronic system is now in place and authors are invited to make use of the online submission process which allows you to track your paper through the system.

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  • Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

    Chris Barker, Brian Martin

    There is a burgeoning amount of research into happiness and greatly increased popular attention, so it seems logical to add a course on happiness to the university curriculum. We encountered, in developing and running such a course, a number of dilemmas that the topic of happiness makes especially acute. Should the teacher remain separate from the class, as an authority, or participate in group activities? Is the primary goal of the class to learn content or to change the relationship of students to the world? What does a mark for learning content signify if developing happiness habits is a goal? Should one goal of the class be for the teacher to be happy and, if so, does this conflict with student learning? These dilemmas reflect larger questions about the purpose of university education. This paper reflects on those questions through our experience of formulating and delivering a new university class on happiness.

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  • What use is SoTL?: Using the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to Develop a Curriculum for First Year University History Classes

    Jennifer Clark

    Literature pertaining to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is growing but there are few studies dealing with disciplinary differences. The SoTL relating to History is a recently emerging development. But what use is SoTL for History if it can not be translated into improving teaching practice? This paper examines the process of identifying current thinking in the specific SoTL of History, especially the teaching of historical thinking, and applying it to the development of a new history curriculum for first year students.

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  • Leading the Way: Indigenous knowledge and Collaboration at the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre

    Colleen McGloin, Anne Marshall, Michael Adams

    This paper derives from collaborative research undertaken by staff at the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre, into our own teaching practice. It articulates a particular strand of inquiry emanating from the research: the importance of Indigenous knowledges as this is taught at Woolyungah in the discipline of Indigenous Studies. The paper is a reflection of Woolyungah’s pedagogical aims, and its development as a Unit that seeks to embed other knowledges into the realm of critical inquiry within subjects taught at the Unit. It also reflects student responses to our pedagogy. The writers are Indigenous and non-Indigenous and have collaborated with all teaching staff involved to present this work as a starting point for discussions about the emerging discipline of Indigenous Studies, its rigour as an academic field of inquiry and our commitment as educators to the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in our programme.

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  • Building Learning Communities in Residential Colleges

    Robyn L Muldoon, Ian Macdonald

    This paper addresses the retention issues presented when large numbers of students from low socio-economic backgrounds and associated disadvantaged educational histories live together on-campus. It reports research in progress on a new approach taken at the University of New England (UNE), Australia, aimed at encouraging the growth of learning communities in colleges through the training and subsequent support of senior students charged with helping first year students negotiate the transition to successful university study. It outlines the issues faced by both the first year students and the senior students, strategies implemented, outcomes to date and plans for further change. UNE is a regional university with 5,000 on-campus students, half of whom live in seven residential colleges. It appears that for these students, traditional lectures and workshops on learning strategies and techniques are not as effective as layered, personal ‘at the elbow’ learning support in a non-threatening, social environment.

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  • Assessment of Online Discussion Forums for Law Students

    Judith McNamara, Kelley Burton

    This paper goes beyond the existing literature and explores the innovative topic of designing criterion-referenced assessment for online discussion forums. There are several benefits of embedding online discussion forums into subjects including engaging students in collaborative learning, and encouraging deeper analysis, critical thinking and reflection. Using the assessment principles of validity, reliability and transparency, this paper offers a range of practical strategies to tutors who plan to develop criterion-referenced assessment as opposed to norm-referenced assessment for online discussion forums, applies the assessment principles in the context of an undergraduate law subject, and exemplars a rubric for an online discussion forum in a work placement subject.

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