Guided Reading Questions
Kia ora koutou
Once you start reading around the topic of academic development it is almost impossible to avoid identity-related articles. Here is a selection of three relatively recent articles about academic identity. As you read them you might like to consider the questions below.
Article 1: Billot, J. (2010). The imagined and the real: Identifying the tensions in academic identity. HERD, 29 (6), 709-721. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2010.487201#.Unv7t6XhzE8
Article 2: Calvert, M. et al. (2011). Negotiating professional identities in higher education: Dilemmas and priorities of academic staff. Research in Education, 86, 25- 38. Available at http://manchester.metapress.com/content/31w8607572576137/?genre=article&id=doi%3a10.7227%2fRIE.86.3
Article 3: Day, C. et al (2006). The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 601-616. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30032695
Questions:
1. What is academic identity?
2. How does it relate to 'professional identity'?
3. What are your academic values?
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Kia ora koutou
Given Victoria's recent adoption of a new graduate profile, here are three articles about graduate attributes. The Barrie article is ‘seminal’; the Green, Star and Hammer article is about developing GAs, rather than mapping them, and the Fraser and Thomas paper is just out, and is focused on an area without a lot of core subjects. As you read through these articles you might like to consider the questions below.
Article 1: Barrie, S. C. (2006). Understanding what we mean by the generic attributes of graduates. Higher education, 51(2), 215-241. Available at http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10734-004-6384-7.pdf
Article 2: Green, W., Hammer, S., & Star, C. (2009). Facing up to the challenge: why is it so hard to develop graduate attributes?. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(1), 17-29. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07294360802444339
Article 3: Fraser, K., & Thomas, T. (2013). Challenges of assuring the development of graduate attributes in a Bachelor of Arts. Higher Education Research & Development, (ahead-of-print), 1-16. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07294360.2012.704594
Questions:
1. What is a graduate attribute? How many definitions can you find in these papers? What other similar terms are used?
2. What is the place of values?
3. Are graduate attributes automatically transferable?
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Kia ora koutou
Here are three recent articles about researching higher education and academic development. As you read through these articles you might like to consider the questions below.
Article 1: Clegg, S. (2012). Conceptualising higher education research and/or academic development as ‘fields’: a critical analysis. [doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.690369]. Higher Education Research & Development, 31(5), 667-678. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07294360.2012.690369
Article 2: Jones, A. (2010). Examining the public face of academic development. [doi: 10.1080/1360144X.2010.497689]. International Journal for Academic Development, 15(3), 241-251. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1360144X.2010.497689
Article 3: Trowler, P. (2013). Can approaches to research in Art and Design be beneficially adapted for research into higher education? [doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.750276]. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(1), 56-69. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07294360.2012.750276
Questions:
1. What is a research 'finding'?
2. Do you see teaching as a problem, a science or a moral good?
3. Is academic development a deficit activity?
4. Take a look at your programme's webpages. How is your work and the work of your teaching team seen by others?
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Kia ora koutou
Here are three recent articles about higher education in New Zealand.
Article 1: Erik Brogt & Keith Comer (2013) Interpreting differences between the United States and New Zealand university students’ engagement scores as measured by the NSSE and AUSSE, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38:6, 713-736, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2012.693906. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2012.693906
Article 2: Linda Leach (2013) Participation and equity in higher education: are we going back to the future?, Oxford Review of Education, 39:2, 267-286, DOI:10.1080/03054985.2013.791618. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2013.791618
Article 3: Colleen McMurchy-Pilkington (2013) ‘We are family’: Māori success in foundation programmes, Higher Education Research & Development, 32:3, 436-449, DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2011.643294. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.643294
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Kia ora koutou
Here are three recent articles about student evaluations of teaching (SETs). As you read through these articles you might like to consider the questions below.
Article 1: Lyn Alderman, Stephen Towers & Sylvia Bannah (2012). Student feedback systems in higher education: a focused literature review and environmental scan, Quality in Higher Education, 18:3, 261-280. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2012.730714
Article 2: Sarah J. Stein, Dorothy Spiller, Stuart Terry, Trudy Harris, Lynley Deaker & Jo Kennedy (2013). Tertiary teachers and student evaluations: never the twain shall meet?, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2013.767876. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.767876
Article 3: Stephen L. Wright & Michael A. Jenkins-Guarnieri (2012). Student evaluations of teaching: combining the meta-analyses and demonstrating further evidence for effective use, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 37:6, 683-699, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2011.563279. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2011.563279
Questions:
1. One underlying assumption of SETs is that what they measure relates to student learning. Is that justified?
2. Berk (2005) suggests that student feedback is just one of 12 possible strategies for measuring the effectiveness of teachers. What are some other measures of teaching effectiveness?
3. As a result of reading all three articles, how would you evaluate Victoria’s policy and practice regarding student feedback?
4. How do you feed back (or feed forward) your SET results to your students?
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Kia ora koutou
Here are three recent articles about signature concepts and key researchers in the field of higher education teaching and learning. As you read through each article you might like to consider the questions below.
Article 1: Kandlbinder, P., 2011. Reading to change higher education teaching and learning. In Kandlbinder, P., and Peseta, T., 2011. Higher Education Research and Development Anthology. Milpera, NSW: HERDSA. Available at http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/HERD_Anthology_12-18.pdf
Questions:
1. What is the opposite of a constructivist epistemology?
2. What are your own understandings of and experiences with phenomenography? Issues? Adaptations?
3. Is it true that you are ‘not acting’ when doing solitary reading and are you merely accepting the status quo (p.17)?
4. Kandlbinder suggests that higher education theory and concepts are ‘easy to grasp’ but perceived to be ‘irrelevant’ by most university lecturers (p.14). How do you respond to that assertion?
Article 2: Kandlbinder, P., 2013. Signature concepts of key researchers in higher education teaching and learning. Teaching in Higher Education, Volume 18, Number 1, pp. 1-12(12). Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562517.2012.694102#.UduSMr-zvBw
Questions:
1. How familiar are you with the seven most highly cited authors? Have you read or used any of their work before? Why/why not? For what?
2. In what context did you first encounter these pedagogies (formal classes, personal reading)? Can you identify these pedagogies in your own teaching practice? Do you use these in your research practice?
3. Is Bourdieu’s idea of the accumulation and exchange of symbolic capital simply a fancy term for the ‘old boy’s club’?
Article 3: Kandlbinder, P., 2013. Signature concepts of women researchers in higher education teaching and learning. Studies in Higher Education. Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2013.801430#.UduSTL-zvBw
Questions:
1. When you select texts to cite do you think about: a. Who the authors actually are? b. What their contribution has been to the field? c. Whether your citation selections are representative and equitable?
2. How many journal editors and reviewers in your field are women? How might this influence how many women researchers are cited in journal articles?
Overall question: 1. What’s your ‘signature concept’?
