Threshold concepts are concepts central to the mastery of a specific discipline. The project team created a generic model for using these concepts to explore and reflect on student misconceptions and the teaching of troublesome knowledge for use by teachers in biology. Student understanding of the concepts was tested and interventions designed to help improve understanding. A biology teaching package was created along with a generic teaching model and guidelines to assist learning. Project publications and resources are available at the project website.
Resource Library
The Resource Library contains a collection of higher education learning and teaching materials flowing from projects funded by the Commonwealth of Australia including those from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
Materials identified as good practice are indentified. Read more...
Results may be sorted filtered by keywords.
17 resources found.
Role of Graduate Attributes in Emerging Institutional Quality Assurance Processes video
The University of Sydney
2009
Introductory Commentary
This resource forms part of a larger collection. It is recommended that readers refer also to:
1. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/gamap/introduction.htm
and
2. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/discussionpapers.htm
This 13-minute video is titled "Role of Graduate Attributes in Emerging Institutional Quality Assurance Processes" by Dr Jeanette Baird, Australian Universities Quality Agency, and produced as part of the National Graduate Attributes Project (2007-08) which explores curriculum renewal strategies to achieve graduate attributes in Australian universities.
The video provides a quality assurance perspective on how universities (and higher education institutions, HEIs) implement Graduate Attributes. Dr Baird suggests there are two overall questions that HEIs should ask: "How do you know that graduates achieve the Graduate Attributes?" and "What improvements to students' learning outcomes have resulted from these Graduate Attributes?". Evidence is required to support HEIs' claims about Graduate Attributes.
Dr Baird then goes on to three specific areas: (1) alignment between Graduate Attributes and HEI's institutional objectives; (2) curriculum review and implementation through mapping and contextualisation; and (3) internationalisation. Other topics include (briefly): employer feedback; CEQ Generic Skills results as a proxy for Graduate Attribute achievement; curriculum mapping and the reflection required in relation to assessment; the challenges of internationalisation and Australian HEIs; consistency of the student experience across campus. Underlying this approach is the OADRI framework (Objectives, Approach, Deploy, Review and Improve).
This resource is particularly useful and relevant to those considering a whole of institution approach and deployment of Graduate Attributes implementation in the curriculum, as well as internal and external quality assurance. It is clearly presented and to the point. The video is easily accessible to most users, and plays within the web page and on most browsers.
Graduate attributes statements database
The University of Sydney
2009
Introductory Commentary
This resource forms part of a larger collection. It is recommended that readers refer also to:
1. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/discussionpapers.htm
and
2. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/videos.htm
This is one of the outcomes of the National GAP (Graduate Attributes Project), a national scoping study of Australian universities' recent activities in relation to the development of graduate attributes. It is an aggregation of de-identified university graduate attributes statements, gathered in 2007-08. The statements were sorted into groups describing similar graduate attributes. They are presented as 'Enabling' level attributes (broader dispositions: scholarship, global citizenship, life-long learning) and 'Translation' level (more discrete, discipline-specific attributes: research and enquiry; information literacy; personal and intellectual autonomy; ethical, social and professional understanding and communication).
The boundaries between categories are artificial and some relate to more than one category.
This web resource includes a clickable visual map showing these eight subcategories. Links take the user to an aggregation of university statements of attributes -- for example, when universities include an attribute related to critical thinking, here are examples of how they phrase that statement. Even though these were gathered in 2007-08, they are unlikely to date -- the database shows the similarities and differences in statements.
This is a useful resource for those considering reviewing their attributes. It also shows the broad emphases in attributes across the sector.
The National Graduate Attributes Project Issues papers
The University of Sydney
2009
Introductory Commentary
This resource forms part of a larger collection. It is recommended that readers refer also to:
1. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/gamap/introduction.htm
and
2. http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/resources/videos.htm
This is a collection of eight issues to consider in the renewal of learning and teaching experiences.
The National Graduate Attributes Project (GAP), a national scoping study of Australian Universities' recent activities in relation to the development of graduate attributes underpins the project.
The papers provide an introduction to each of the key elements identified as being important for universities to consider when engaging in curriculum renewal to achieve graduate attributes. Each paper is short and points to additional references. The eight elements of the institutional framework are not independent and recommended by the authors to be read in sequence. The papers are presented as starting points for reflection.
The eight papers focus on (1) Conceptualisation, (2) Stakeholders, (3) Implementation, (4) Curriculum, (5) Assessment, (6) Quality Assurance, (7) Staff Development, and (8) Student Centred. They are most helpful to those involved in considering whole of institution (or faculty) approaches to Graduate Attributes implementation. They make a good starting point and are easily downloadable separately or as one PDF document.
Facilitating the integration of evidence based practice into speech pathology curricula: a scoping study to examine the congruence between academic curricula and work based needs
The University of Sydney
2009
La Trobe, Macquarie, UoN, UQ
This resource profiles two surveys that sought to elicit the views of a representative sample of academic staff and clinical educators in regards to the integration and application of evidence based practice (EBP) in speech pathology education. The gaps and challenges of incorporating EBP into curricula and clinical education and clearly discussed. The survey was undertaken in 2009 as a component of a project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
The resource, while focused on speech pathology education, will have broader application for a range of health professions where the challenge of integrating EBP into academic and clinical education is a perennial problem. The results of the survey, while not particularly surprising, are illuminative and identify some of the key issues that educators face in creating a culture where EBP is integral to contemporary practice rather than simply another academic 'subject'.
This resource can be accessed as a pdf document as part of the full report of the ALTC project. The full report also provides an interesting contextual discussion of the issues surrounding speech pathology education and EBP.
The strengths, challenges and recommendations sections of this resource will be valuable to those involved in health professional education.
The resource is succinct (14 pages) and written in plain English. Some of the tables included in the report, although relevant, will take some time to interpret.
The authors correctly identify the limitations of the approach taken in this study, ie potentially valuable student perspectives were not sought, and the surveys were based on self-report rather than observational/behavioural measures. The resource also mentions observation of four case studies but provides only limited discussion or analysis of this aspect of the study. However, the complete case studies are available as part of the full ALTC report, as are the surveys.
Advancing science by enhancing learning in the laboratory (ASELL)
The University of Sydney
2012
Curtin University of Technology, Deakin University, Flinders University, The University of Adelaide
Establishing infrastructure and collaborative processes for cross-institutional benchmarking of student clinical performance in speech pathology
The University of Sydney
2011
James Cook University, La Trobe University, The University of Newcastle, The University of Queensland
A national soil science curriculum in response to the needs of students, academic staff, industry, and the wider community
The University of Sydney
2012
The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia
Using threshold concepts to generate a new understanding of teaching and learning biology
The University of Sydney
2011
The University of New South Wales, University of Western Sydney
Services Science Management and Engineering (SSME) Learning and Teaching Project
The University of Sydney
2011
Themes central to the study of services were identified as: service system fundamentals, service systems management, service systems engineering, service technologies, business process modelling, knowledge management systems, customer relationship management, and modern organisations. Detailed course descriptions and some teaching materials for each of these themes were developed.
Also implemented was a Service Learning and Teaching Foundry, which provides a virtual space for students to learn important service-oriented approach/business process modelling (SOA/BPM) concepts, gain hands-on experience with service-oriented software engineering, and practise their skills using real world examples. http://soc.cse.unsw.edu.au/teachingfoundry/
The University of Melbourne, The University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland
Curriculum renewal in postgraduate information technology education: a response to growing service sector dominance
The University of Sydney
2011
Themes central to the study of services were identified as: service system fundamentals, service systems management, service systems engineering, service technologies, business process modelling, knowledge management systems, customer relationship management, and modern organisations. Detailed course descriptions and some teaching materials for each of these themes were developed.
Also implemented was a Service Learning and Teaching Foundry, which provides a virtual space for students to learn important service-oriented approach/business process modelling (SOA/BPM) concepts, gain hands-on experience with service-oriented software engineering, and practise their skills using real world examples.
The University of Melbourne, The University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland
Teaching, technology and educational design: the architecture of productive learning environments
The University of Sydney
2010
Creating a student-centred online learning environment for report writing in the sciences and engineering
The University of Sydney
2009
The National Graduate Attributes Project: integration and assessment of graduate attributes in curriculum
The University of Sydney
2009
Griffith, UQ
Embedding the development of intercultural competence in Business education
The University of Sydney
2009
Benchmarking clinical learning in speech pathology to support assessment, discipline standards, teaching innovation and student learning
The University of Sydney
2008
This project will build the capacity of speech pathology academics to monitor and improve the quality of their teaching and assessment through benchmarking effective strategies for facilitating student learning in the workplace nationally and internationally. Programs will be supported to develop threshold standards of performance that will inform teaching practice within universities. The project also aims to facilitate international benchmarking for the purpose of maintenance of standards and improvement of learning and teaching practices.
CSU, Flinders
Shaping a Desired Future for Australian Business Education
The University of Sydney
2008
Business as usual: A collaborative investigation of existing resources, strengths, gaps and challenges to be addressed for sustainability in teaching and learning in Australian university business faculties
The University of Sydney
2008
goodpractice