Critical Conversations in Teaching, Learning and Academic Practice

In Semester Two 2009, the Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) will coordinate a series of critical conversations in teaching, learning and academic practice. The series is intended to spark lively discussion and conversation about the teaching and learning practices and challenges that affect the working lives of academics in the contemporary university. The series this semester will bring together a number of experts, academics and students together for topic-based critical discussions.

You are welcome to join us for lunch at 12pm with the speakers beginning at 12.30pm-2pm. Please RSVP to Dr Tai Peseta (tpeseta@unimelb.edu.au) in the TLU if you would like to come along (for catering purposes).  

Critical Conversation 1
Challenges in internationalising the university curriculum: Is it the teaching, the students and the curriculum?
12-2pm (12pm for lunch, 12.30pm for speakers)
Wednesday 9 September, 2009
Public Policy Theatre, 234 Queensberry St, Parkville
The University of Melbourne

The Faculty of Economics and Commerce (FEC) has always attracted a large cohort of international students. Similarly, amongst the staff of the faculty, there are experiences of teaching, learning and researching in different countries and contexts that have added an international dimension to the subjects and courses on offer. Such cultural diversity brings a rich set of experiences to the faculty’s programs but also offers a number of challenges about how best to support international students in a way that is more than just remedial in nature. And for universities that claim they are international, there are additional questions about how to support local students engage in experiences that lead to a truly global outlook.

What does it mean to internationalise our curricula? How do we ensure that all students gain a higher education that is international in both character and focus? What sort of educational experiences lead to the development of our students as global citizens – as described by the Melbourne Model? How are those experiences embedded in the way we conceive, design and evaluate the curriculum of our subjects? What might be some shared measures that will help us to determine aspects of the curriculum we wish to make more international?

This first of our critical conversations topics is an opportunity to flesh out a number of issues associated with internationalising the curriculum and where best, to focus our energies in doing so.

Speakers:
Associate Professor Gavin Sanderson is Deputy Director of the Learning and Teaching Unit at the University of South Australia. He has worked with the idea and practice of ‘internationalisation’ in higher education in various posts and in different universities since the early 1990s. Gavin’s research spans conceptual and practical dimensions of internationalisation and he has written on globalisation and internationalisation theory, teaching international students and the idea of cosmopolitanism in teaching in higher education. He is currently leading a cross-institutional project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) ‘Moderation for Fair Assessment in Transnational Teaching and Learning’ with collaborators from UTS, Southern Cross University and Taylor’s University College in Malaysia. Read more about Gavin.

Challenges in internationalising the university curriculum: Is it the teaching, the students and the curriculum? (PDF 470Kb)

Dr Sophie Arkoudis is currently Deputy Director and Senior Lecturer in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) at The University of Melbourne. Her research is mainly focused on issues concerning English language learning in higher education. She currently leads a DEEWR-funded project on the impact of English language proficiency on employment outcomes for tertiary international students and is a member of the Steering Committee. Sophie is also leading an ALTC project ‘Enhancing domestic and international students’ engagement: changing attitudes and behaviours’ in collaboration with RMIT and Victoria University. Sophie has specialist expertise on developing teaching and learning to cater for culturally diverse student populations, as well as an understanding of recent research into international students in English medium contexts. Read more about Sophie.

Enhancing interaction between students in learning environments (PDF 76Kb)

Alicia Mann and Parvez Gupta are postgraduate students in the Faculty. Alicia is in the final year of the Master of Applied Commerce (Marketing) program and hopes to work in brand management or in marketing strategy. Parvez is studying a Master of Business and Information Technology and upon graduation, will be seeking work as an IT/IS consultant in Australia.

Critical Conversation 2
Beyond the QoTs: How should we evaluate the quality of teaching in universities? 
12-2pm (12pm for lunch, 12.30pm for speakers)
Wednesday 14 October, 2009
Public Policy Theatre, 234 Queensberry St, Parkville
The University of Melbourne

This second critical conversation is intended to provoke a spirited discussion about how universities might approach evaluating the quality of teaching. The main instrument used at the University of Melbourne is the Quality of Teaching Survey (QoT). The focus on Q2 (the subject is well taught) and Q9 (overall satisfaction) reflects the university’s priorities regarding teaching quality. Is the focus on these two questions consistent with what is known in the research about excellence in university teaching and learning? How can we be sure that Q2 particularly, provides us with the most accurate measure of our teaching practice so that we can improve students’ learning? 

The conversation reflects on how a university should recognise and evaluate the quality of teaching and what the challenges are in doing so. What policy challenges are involved for a university in standardising instruments for measuring teaching quality? What are the experiences of academic staff in having their teaching measured primarily by the QoTs? What additional forms of evidence of teaching quality can a staff member use to complement the QoT data and how seriously are these taken? How do we know that the information collected through the QoTs contributes to both the improvement of teaching practice and student learning?

We attempt to unpack some of these questions in order to look more critically at our expectations and practices of the way teaching quality is measured and recognised.

Speakers
Associate Professor Michele Scoufis is Director of the Office of Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Economics and Business at The University of Sydney. From 2003-2008, she was Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of New South Wales leading all manner of initiatives related to the development of Foundations programs for new academic staff, developing leadership capacity, supporting faculties to develop learning and teaching performance indicators and building a culture/community of evaluation, improvement, reward and recognition for university teaching and learning. Michele has led or been a team member in several major Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) projects: academic beliefs and graduate attributes (with CQU), Carrick institutional leadership (with QUT) and developing a framework for supporting sessional staff (co-leader with SCU) as just a few examples. Read more about Michele here.

Professor Bill Harley works in the Department of Management and Marketing in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, The University of Melbourne. Some of Bill’s research interests are in industrial relations, democracy and participation at work and HRM. He teaches in the subjects Advanced Management Research and Organisational Behaviour. Currently, Bill is Chair of the University’s Quality of Teaching (QoTs) Advisory Group, a group seeking to make a series of recommendations to Academic Board about the QoT survey across the university. Read more about Bill here. 

Dr Sean Pinder is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Finance in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, The University of Melbourne. Sean teaches Business Finance and Corporate Finance. His research interests relate to the valuation of derivative securities and the analysis of corporate financial decision making. Sean is one of the Faculty’s outstanding teachers. In 2007, he was the recipient of two awards: (i) with Les Coleman, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and (ii) the Pearson Education Accounting/Finance Lecturer of the Year Award, endorsed and judged by various professional and accreditation bodies. In 2009, Sean received an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning for the development and implementation of numerous effective innovations in teaching finance and the successful engagement with practitioners in these innovations. Read more about Sean here.

Critical Conversation 3
Plagiarism in the University: the rhetoric and the reality
12-2pm (12pm for lunch, 12.30pm for speakers)
Wednesday 2 December, 2009
The Basement Theatre, The Spot (198 Berkeley St, Parkville)
The University of Melbourne

Within an international and a mass higher education system, supporting students to develop an understanding of plagiarism as an important academic and ethical value suggests that our expectations of students need to be clear. It may also mean that we need to spend more time than we currently do, engaging with the ways students understand plagiarism: what they think it is, why they do it and what they think the consequences ought to be. To some extent, all students might be considered strangers to the academy – and plagiarism might be one response to a sense of dislocation, isolation and unfamiliarity. What might a proactive and developmental approach to countering plagiarism look like? How does university policy deal with plagiarism? Are our systems and processes adequate to the scope and task of it? Where in the curriculum, should students learn about it and who should teach it? Do we need new forms of assessment and new ways of assessing? Does this mean dumbing down the curriculum, necessarily?  

This final conversation provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the ways we deal with and treat plagiarism in the Faculty, and in the University.

Speakers