Responding

to diversity

BEST PRACTICE IN

TEACHING IN COMMON

UNITS

Thursday

Welcome and introductions

Teaching in Common Units: Understanding diversity, Role of the common unit program and the CU learning & teaching frame work.

Learning and teaching approach

Working in the E-learning studio

Friday

Developing Academic literacies and academic Integrity

Working and supporting students from other language backgrounds

Assessments standards and moderation

Moderating some sample assignments

Individual unit housekeeping

PROGRAM

In your group, discuss the common difficulties

identified and whether those mentioned in the videos

resonate with your own experience of first year

students.

In your experience, what are the challenges related

to teaching students from diverse backgrounds?

What strategies have you adopted to assist these

students?

REFLECTING ON THE ACADEMIC NEEDS

OF STUDENTS

From: www.cps.k12.in.us

Drawing on the reading, Effective teaching and support

of students from low socio-economic backgrounds and

your own experience discuss:

What are the overarching principles presented and to

what degree do they reflect your own pedagogy?

Are there are any aspects of the reading that seem

unreasonable or difficult to implement?

What value does a reading such as this provide?

REFLECTING ON THE ACADEMIC NEEDS

OF STUDENTS

From: www.cps.k12.in.us

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Australia CDU

DEMOGRAPHIC AT CDU – FIGURES 2011

COMMON UNITS PHILOSOPHY

To be responsive to individual

student backgrounds and needs as

they make the transition into study

at university and to help provide a

level playing field for all beginning

students.

Recognises diversity

Responds to students' changing needs through

continuous reflection and review of the program

Commits to best practice teaching and learning

Provides a comprehensive management strategy

guidelines and support to achieve best practice

The program has won two ALTC awards (2007 and

2011) for supporting First Year Learning.

THE RECOGNITION OF OUR DIVERSE

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMS OUR APPROACH:

SUPPORTIVE, FLEXIBLE AND DEVELOPMENTAL

DEVELOPS KEY UNIVERSITY SKILLS AND

KNOWLEDGE UPFRONT

Graduate attributes including:

Academic skills

Cultural knowledge

Critical enquiry

Creativity and teamwork

Citizenship and social

responsibility

Confidence to participate in

academic culture

One literacy common unit:

CUC100 Academic Literacies (for humanities

and social sciences

or

CUC106 Design & Innovation:Communicating

Technology (for Business, technology,

science)

and

CUC107 (introducing cultural knowledge)

IN FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

COMPLETE

COMMON UNITS ARE MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Content references all disciplines

Teaching teams drawn from different

schools

Management group includes

representatives from faculties and

schools

Assessment that:

Is formative and developmental

Allows students to perfect and

develop their skills as they go

through the course

Is fair and designed to take into

account students diverse

educational and cultural

backgrounds

KEY PRACTISES THAT REFLECT

PHILOSOPHY

Working from manageable levels to

gradually harder with support.

Allowing students to resubmit

assignments so they can learn by

addressing problems

Understand that for some students

reaching the bare minimum standard by

the end of the units will represent

significant progress

Learning activities and assignments that

scaffold students learning by:

http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/commonunits/index.html

OUR WEBSITE – PHILOSOPHY,

GUIDELINES AND RESOURCES

TEAM TEACHING IN THE

ELEARNING STUDIO

Coming up with

shared

understandings

and strategies

ELEARNING STUDIO PROVIDES US

WITH:

A flexible space

What does that mean for you and the

students?

Is technology enabled

What does that allow and inhibit?

Has a 50 student capacity

Advantages/ Disadvantages?

From: www.cps.k12.in.us

TEAM TEACHING

Involves two teachers working facilitating

a class at the same time

Benefits and challenges?

Marking loads are split across the team

Potential problems?

Generally one person leads – both lesson

planning and class

So who does what in the space?

From: www.cps.k12.in.us

OUR LEARNING AND TEACHING

APPROACH IS BASED ON:

Authentic, Experiential and Collaborative pedagogy so …

Learning experiences should consider students learning styles and backgrounds, and facilitate learning through authentic, meaningful and purposeful collaboration with peers and teachers.

Experiential learning is

learning through reflection on

doing as opposed to

absorbing information

delivered didactically. It

focuses on the learning

process for the individual but

is also concerned with issues

such as the relationship of

teacher and student, and

students with their peers.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

LESSON PLANS HELP:

Ensure the team is on the same page and

is a working document as each week is

planned

Forefront the learning objectives

Allow time to be allocated to each task

Help ensure experiential approach is

adhered to and power point doesn’t take

over

ONE MODEL OF A LESSON PLAN

Critique the effectiveness re:

The experiential cycle

Time management realistic

Range of learning styles

captured

From: www.cps.k12.in.us

What are your observations?

POWER POINT ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

From: en.wikipedia.org

Students appreciate the structure a well -ordered

presentation can provide (Hill, Arford, Lubitow, &

Smollin, 2012). But:

In the case of dialogue, argument and narrative,

PowerPoint distracts and fragments.

PowerPoint, encourages linearity and hierarchical

thinking (Adams, 2006).

Discussion and critical thinking are discouraged or

fragmented (Tufte, 2003).

No notable advantage for information recall (Savoy,

Proctor, & Salvendy 2009)

LIMITATIONS OF POWER POINT

Use sparingly, if at all, during discussion and dialogue.

Use to indicate a signpost or guide, or to post questions

and discussion topics.

Use a blank slide, or clear the screen when you stop to

speak or engage with students.

Summary slides to wind-up after the discussion.

Graphics & font and design should be clear and clean.

Visuals should be relevant and clear.

You are the presenter, not PowerPoint – expand your

classroom presence!

USING POWER POINT EFFECTIVELY

MATCHING THE PRESENTATION TO

CONTENT

For this information:

Use:

Graphics, figures, animation, multimedia PowerPoint

Text, numeric information either - PowerPoint is faster than writing

Concepts - verbal or dialogue verbal presentation - be selective in

supporting your presentation with

PowerPoint

DEVELOPING ACADEMIC

LITERACIES AND

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

DEVELOPING ACADEMIC

LITERACIES AND

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

http://www.udel.edu/udmessenger/vol18no3/stories/research_writing-class.html

Demographic differences

Entry path to higher education

Engagement with literacy

Proficiency in languages other than English

•

FACTORS WHICH AFFECT LANGUAGE AND

LITERACY LEVELS OF FIRST YEAR

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIA

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/mentors-to-guide-students-aime/1408687/

Indigenous

Australians

First and second

generation migrants

to Australia

International

students

TEACHING STUDENTS WHO SPEAK ENGLISH AS

A SECOND OR ANOTHER LANGUAGE

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/australia-reaches-35-

attainment-oecd/story-e6frgcjx-1226136934637

Differences between

English and other

languages will include:

Phonological

Grammatical

Lexical

Orthographical

DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGES

http://palmstone.com/portfolio/index5.html

A language test can elicit what a student can

do in a particular language, in a particular

context but also demonstrates that language

acquisition is an ongoing process .

TESTING LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

http://ieltswithmiryana.wordpress.com/

http://www.ets.org/toefl

Students are assessed in four language areas:

Speaking

Listening

Reading

Writing

Take a few moments to review the information of the test, and samples of students’ written work.

IELTS

http://studyusa.com/en/a/72/test-taking-strategies

“To study independently, university students must

be able to read complex academic texts with a

high level of understanding, and be able to

critically analyse such texts in order to present

coherent analysis, argument or discussion in their

own written work. They must also be able to

structure their essays appropriately, using

academic conventions and objective academic

language, to demonstrate their mastery of a topic

or inform and influence their readers” (Rose 2006,

p42).

STUDYING AT UNIVERSITY

The English Language Entry to CDU for international students is

IELTS 6.0.

But

Those who come via VET and other pathways may have as little

as IELTS 5.0!

Take a few moments:

1. Consider the following descriptors for IELTS 6 capability.

2. Now consider this first year assessment task.

3. What kind of support would you expect your students will

need?

OFFICIAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENTRY TO

CDU IS IELTS 6

Academic texts are highly specialised and dense.

So,

Teaching at university involves teaching students how to recognise how meanings are made in texts.

Then,

They can make use of this knowledge in academic tasks.

TEACHING ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AND

LITERACY

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/scaffolding-or-no-scaffolding.html

Learning to read and write academic texts takes time and practice.

So

Our teaching for first year students and beyond should be seen as an apprenticeship model – this means scaffolding student learning.

This involves supporting students in the acquisition of literacy, giving students time to practise complex skills.

AN APPRENTICESHIP MODEL

http://investingcaffeine.com/tag/bubble/

In lectures

Provide a clear overview of a lecture or workshop and what will be covered, and at the end, give a summary of what was covered

Provide lecture notes of key points

On-line

Provide clear visual teaching aids to support lectures or discussions

SUPPORTING ALL STUDENTS IN THE

CLASSROOM

http://blog.simplek12.com/education/engage-students-online/

In group discussions

Give students enough time to organise their thoughts and speak to each other, and record their ideas.

In class discussions

Summarise what was said, and note down the main points on the board where possible.

SUPPORTING ALL THE STUDENTS IN THE

CLASSROOM

http://www.washington.edu/doit/cbi/stempartners/student.html

1. Prepare for reading

2. Create a taxonomy of the text with the students

3. Do a detailed reading

4. Make notes of key ideas and paraphrase these

SCAFFOLD READING TEXTS

http://www.bendigotafe.edu.au/Courses/fees-and-charges/Pages/get-help-with-fees.aspx

By the end of first year, what do you expect students to be able to do? Consider:

Acquisition of knowledge: How independent should they be as learners?

Knowledge Base: What do you expect them to know?

Application: How effectively and broadly should they be able to apply this knowledge?

Creativity: How original and/or innovative should their ideas be?

Communication: What do you expect them to be able to do in spoken and written tasks? (Consider language criteria)

Team Work: How well should they be operating in a group context?

WHAT DO WE EXPECT OF FIRST YEAR

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS?

Interpretation of assignments Ask for a plan and check drafts (or partial draft) to

ensure students understand the purpose,

expectations and structure of assignment.

Giving feedback Be instructive and specific in your comments.

Prioritise comments on content and structure.

Be clear about how students will be assessed.

Critical Thinking Help students to expand on what they have said by

asking: Why are you saying this? Why do you think

… Why do you think the author has said this …

Coherence and reference Be explicit about where clearer coherence is needed

and further explanation and examples.

Revise one or two paragraphs as an example of

good connectives, showing how cohesion is

achieved.

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH

ASSIGNMENTS

Logical Progression Clarify where parts of the writing should be e.g. thesis,

reference details, cohesive markers …

Stylistic devices Explain if particular aspects not appropriate e.g. flowery or

verbose language, emotive or exaggerated claims or

generalisations, use of analogies, metaphorical language

Evidence Be instructional about what constitutes acceptable or ‘good’

evidence and what does not

Clarify any issues with referencing details

Correcting grammar and

language

Remember

Decide what is tolerable ‘writing accent’

• Where there are systemic errors, provide notes at the end

and any relevant references.’

• If non systemic errors do not interfere with meaning, there

is no need to correct them, with the exception of the article

or prepositions

• Correct idiomatic use, errors in collocation, and alternative

words/phrases is language used is not accurate

Overcorrection of grammar and language use is not usually

instructive.

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH

ASSIGNMENTS

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH

ASSIGNMENTS

Be clear about your

expectations of first year

university students

Use a clear, unambiguous assessment criteria to mark

students’ work.

Participate in regular moderation workshops with other

teaching staff to ensure that you are fair and consistent

in your approach.

Final Comment Be positive with the student’s efforts, telling them what

they have done well. Explain any specific problems , and

finish by again affirming what they have achieved.

Hi Jane

In general you have made a great attempt at summarising and paraphrasing these readings.

As you will see from my comments within your assignment you have at times slipped into informal language – remember no personal pronouns (e.g “I” and “you”) in academic assignments unless they are asked for specifically. You could also have developed your comments on the readings a l ittle further to talk specifically about why the ideas were relevant or not to your profession.

Overall though you have presented your annotated bibliography correctly and captured the key ideas well.

Cheers

Nicola

EXAMPLE COMMENT – KISS KICK KISS