© 2013 D. Boud & E. Molloy. Learners complain that they do not get enough feedback, and educators resent that although they put considerable time into generating feedback, students take little notice of it. Both parties agree that it is very important. Feedback in Higher and Professional Education explores what needs to be done to make feedback more effective. It examines the problem of feedback and suggests that there is a lack of clarity and shared meaning about what it is and what constitutes doing it well. It argues that new ways of thinking about feedback are needed. There has been considerable development in research on feedback in recent years, but surprisingly little awareness of what needs to be done to improve it and good ideas are not translated into action. The book provides a multi-disciplinary and international account of the role of feedback in higher and professional education. It challenges three conventional assumptions about feedback in learning: That feedback constitutes one-way flow of information from a knowledgeable person to a less knowledgeable person. That the job of feedback is complete with the imparting of performance-related information. That a generic model of best-practice feedback can be applied to all learners and all learning situations It seeking a new approach to feedback, it proposes that it is necessary to recognise that learners need to be much more actively involved in seeking, generating and using feedback. Rather than it being something they are subjected to, it must be an activity that they drive.

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Research has conventionally viewed feedback from the point of view of the input, thus analysing only one side of the feedback relationship. More recently, there has been an increased interest in understanding feedback-as-talk. Feedback dialogue has been conceptualised as the dynamic interplay of three dimensions: the cognitive, the social-affective and the structural. We sought to explore the interactional features of each dimension and their intermediary effects on students. We analysed students' feedback dialogue excerpts as cases using interactional analysis. Analysis involved iterative inductive and deductive coding, and interpretation of feedback texts generated in an online course. The cognitive, social-affective and structural dimensions were interwoven within excerpts of feedback dialogue with effects on learners that extended beyond the immediate task (e.g. reframing of learners' ideas, critical evaluation). The interactional features of each dimension include: cognitive (e.g. question asking, expressing oneself); social-affective (e.g. disclosure, expressing empathy); and structural (e.g. longitudinal opportunities for dialogue, invitational opportunities). The study provides evidence that strengthens the call for reconceptualising feedback as a dialogic and relational activity, as well as supporting the view that dialogic feedback can be a key strategy for sustainable assessment.

© 2016 Society for Research into Higher EducationAssessment as a field of investigation has been influenced by a limited number of perspectives. These have focused assessment research in particular ways that have emphasised measurement, or student learning or institutional policies. The aim of this paper is to view the phenomenon of assessment from a practice perspective drawing upon ideas from practice theory. Such a view places assessment practices as central. This perspective is illustrated using data from an empirical study of assessment decision-making and uses as an exemplar the identified practice of 'bringing a new assessment task into being'. It is suggested that a practice perspective can position assessment as integral to curriculum practices and end separations of assessment from teaching and learning. It enables research on assessment to de-centre measurement and take account of the wider range of people, phenomena and things that constitute it.

© 2018 Society for Research into Higher Education. This paper investigates the influence that undertaking a professional doctorate has on the practice of the graduate and their workplace or organisation. There is a growing literature on how undertaking such advanced development influences the individual graduate at the personal and professional level but there is little evidence of a wider impact on practice in general or at the organisational level. This study seeks to address this issue through a qualitative study of practitioners from a range of professional arenas and sectors who have graduated from a professional doctorate within the past 10 years. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and the candidates' project reports, we explore their experience of applying their learning within their workplaces providing insight into the level and degree of influence such development can have on organisational contexts. The paper does not focus on the academic or personal impact of their experience as the intention of these particular doctoral researchers is the creation of new knowledge embedded in practice.

© 2017 Society for Research into Higher Education Findings from interviews with mid-career academics in English and Australian universities elucidate how academics interpret and navigate complex institutional contexts in shaping academic jobs. The paper argues that how they do this is a function of what they notice and respond to as well as the mode of reflexivity they employ. Three core areas are seen to affect academics sense of agency as they shape their own jobs: how they orient themselves to the world around them including the academic institution and department; their underlying goals and purposes as they seek to have a fulfilling role; and how they relate to structural conditions of the workplace. The paper argues that understanding academics' differing foci of awareness in these areas is helpful to institutional policies and strategies.

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. In the changing context of universities, organisational structures for teaching and research problematise academic roles. This paper draws on a critical realist analysis of surveys and interviews with academics from universities in England and Australia. It identifies important academic work, not captured simply in descriptions of teaching or research. It shows that many academics, who are not research high flyers nor award-winning teachers, carry out this essential work which contributes to the effective functioning of their universities. That work is referred to as academic artisanal work and the people who do it as academic artisans. Characteristics and examples of academic artisans are presented, and the nature of artisanal work is explored. Implications for higher education management and for future studies are discussed. The paper points to an urgent need to better understand the complex nature of academic work.

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Teaching a large class can present real challenges in design, management and standardisation of assessment practices. One of the main dilemmas for university teachers is how to implement effective formative assessment practices with accompanying high-quality feedback consistently over time with large classroom groups. This article reports on how elements of formative practices can be implemented as part of summative assessment in very large undergraduate cohorts (n = 1500 in one semester), studying in different modes (on- and off-campus), with multiple markers, and under common cost and time constraints. Design features implemented include the use of exemplars, rubrics and audio feedback. The article draws on the reflections of the leading teacher, and argues that, for summative assessment to benefit learners, it should contain formative assessment elements. The teaching practices utilised in the case study provide some means to resolve the tensions between formative assessment and summative assessment that may be more generally applicable.

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Student feedback literacy denotes the understandings, capacities and dispositions needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies. In this conceptual paper, student responses to feedback are reviewed and a number of barriers to student uptake of feedback are discussed. Four inter-related features are proposed as a framework underpinning students' feedback literacy: appreciating feedback; making judgments; managing affect; and taking action. Two well-established learning activities, peer feedback and analysing exemplars, are discussed to illustrate how this framework can be operationalized. Some ways in which these two enabling activities can be re-focused more explicitly towards developing students' feedback literacy are elaborated. Teachers are identified as playing important facilitating roles in promoting student feedback literacy through curriculum design, guidance and coaching. The implications and conclusion summarise recommendations for teaching and set out an agenda for further research.

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective – especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student's own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.

© 2017 The Author(s) Evaluative judgement is the capability to make decisions about the quality of work of oneself and others. In this paper, we propose that developing students' evaluative judgement should be a goal of higher education, to enable students to improve their work and to meet their future learning needs: a necessary capability of graduates. We explore evaluative judgement within a discourse of pedagogy rather than primarily within an assessment discourse, as a way of encompassing and integrating a range of pedagogical practices. We trace the origins and development of the term 'evaluative judgement' to form a concise definition then recommend refinements to existing higher education practices of self-assessment, peer assessment, feedback, rubrics, and use of exemplars to contribute to the development of evaluative judgement. Considering pedagogical practices in light of evaluative judgement may lead to fruitful methods of engendering the skills learners require both within and beyond higher education settings.

© 2017 SEFI Writing practices are seen to be essential for professional engineers, yet many engineering students and academics struggle with written communication, despite years of interventions to improve student writing. Much has been written about the importance of getting engineering students to write, but there has been a little investigation of engineering academics' perceptions of writing practices in the curriculum, and the extent to which these practices are visible to their students and to the academics. This paper draws on research from an ongoing study into the invisibility of writing practices in the engineering curriculum using a practice architectures lens. The paper uses examples from the sites of practice of two participants in the study to argue that prevailing practices in engineering education constrain more than enable the development and practice of writing in the engineering curriculum.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. A variety of understandings of feedback exist in the literature, which can broadly be categorised as cognitivist information transmission and socio-constructivist. Understanding feedback as information transmission or 'telling' has until recently been dominant. However, a socio-constructivist perspective of feedback posits that feedback should be dialogic and help to develop students' ability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their learning. This paper is positioned as part of the shift away from seeing feedback as input, to exploring feedback as a dialogical process focusing on effects, through presenting an innovative methodological approach to analysing feedback dialogues in situ. Interactional analysis adopts the premise that artefacts and technologies set up a social field, where understanding human–human and human–material activities and interactions is important. The paper suggests that this systematic approach to analysing dialogic feedback can enable insight into previously undocumented aspects of feedback, such as the interactional features that promote and sustain feedback dialogue. The paper discusses methodological issues in such analyses and implications for research on feedback.

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media DordrechtThere are dissonances between educators' aspirations for assessment design and actual assessment implementation in higher education. Understanding how assessment is designed 'on the ground' can assist in resolving this tension. Thirty-three Australian university educators from a mix of disciplines and institutions were interviewed. A thematic analysis of the transcripts indicated that assessment design begins as a response to an impetus for change. The design process itself was shaped by environmental influences, which are the circumstances surrounding the assessment design, and professional influences, which are those factors that the educators themselves bring to the process. A range of activities or tasks were undertaken, including those which were essential to all assessment design, those more selective activities which educators chose to optimise the assessment process in particular ways and meta-design processes which educators used to dynamically respond to environmental influences. The qualitative description indicates the complex social nature of interwoven personal and environmental influences on assessment design and the value of an explicit and strategic ways of thinking within the constraints and affordances of a local environment. This suggests that focussing on relational forms of professional development that develops strategic approaches to assessment may be beneficial. The role of disciplinary approaches may be significant and remains an area for future research.

© 2016 British Educational Research Association A wide range of technologies has been developed to enhance assessment, but adoption has been inconsistent. This is despite assessment being critical to student learning and certification. To understand why this is the case and how it can be addressed, we need to explore the perspectives of academics responsible for designing and implementing technology-supported assessment strategies. This paper reports on the experience of designing technology-supported assessment based on interviews with 33 Australian university teachers. The findings reveal the desire to achieve greater efficiencies and to be contemporary and innovative as key drivers of technology adoption for assessment. Participants sought to shape student behaviors through their designs and made adaptations in response to positive feedback and undesirable outcomes. Many designs required modification because of a lack of appropriate support, leading to compromise and, in some cases, abandonment. These findings highlight the challenges to effective technology-supported assessment design and demonstrate the difficulties university teachers face when attempting to negotiate mixed messages within institutions and the demands of design work. We use these findings to suggest opportunities to improve support by offering pedagogical guidance and technical help at critical stages of the design process and encouraging an iterative approach to design.

© 2016 HERDSA. The development of cultures of support has become important in programmes for the preparation of research students. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with 21 research education coordinators from Australian and UK institutions to identify the strategies that they use to build research cultures and integrate research students into them. Students' research cultures are not always linked to departmental research cultures more generally. Local contexts and conditions and staff (including supervisors') attitudes are found to be critical in how research education coordinators respond and what is considered possible in order to ensure that research students are involved in research cultures.

© 2017 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management. How do academics make sense of university policies and strategic initiatives and act on them? Interviews were conducted with 27 mid-career academics in different disciplines, different research-intensive university environments and two countries (England and Australia). Data were analysed iteratively utilising a critical realist perspective, specifically, Archer's modes of reflexivity. The paper argues that individuals' responses to university policies and initiatives, to changes in policy and policy conflicts, can at least partially be understood through interrogating the modes of reflexivity they employ.

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Portfolios are embraced extensively in higher professional education as effective tools for students to represent their learning and help prepare them for future practice. They are very diverse, used for both formative and summative purposes; however, concerns are raised that the current emphasis on academic standards and/or the focus on employability may lead to the perception of portfolios simply as means to portray achievements. This paper argues that contemporary portfolios in digital environments can readily facilitate both purposes. It conceptualises a whole-of-programme approach to the use of portfolios in which consideration is given to the need to bring curation skills and feedback processes to the forefront of portfolio practices. For teachers considering these issues, a planning framework for the design of programme-wide portfolios is proposed.

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Despite widespread recognition of the need to improve assessment in higher education, assessment tasks in individual courses are too often dominated by conventional methods. While changing assessment depends on many factors, improvements to assessment ultimately depend on the decisions and actions of individual educators. This paper considers research within the 'heuristics and biases' tradition in the field of decision-making and judgement which has identified unconscious factors with the potential to limit capacity for such change. The paper focuses on issues that may compromise the process of improving assessment by supporting a reluctance to change existing tasks, by limiting the time allocated to develop alternative assessment tasks, by underestimating the degree of change needed or by an unwarranted overconfidence in assessment design decisions. The paper proposes countering these unconscious limitations to change by requiring justification for changing, or not changing, assessment tasks, and by informal and formal peer review of assessment task design. Finally, an agenda for research on heuristics and biases in assessment design is suggested in order to establish their presence and help counter their influence.

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. There are many excellent publications outlining features of assessment and feedback design in higher education. However, university educators often find these ideas challenging to realise in practice, as much of the literature focuses on institutional change rather than supporting academics. This paper describes the conceptual development of a practical framework designed to stimulate educators' thinking when creating or modifying assessments. We explain the concepts that underpin this practical support, including the notions of 'assessment decisions' and 'assessment design phases', as informed by relevant literature and empirical data. We also present the outcome of this work. The Assessment Design Decisions Framework. This provides key considerations in six categories: purposes, contexts, tasks, interactions, feedback processes and learning outcomes. By tracing the development of the Framework, we highlight complex ways of thinking about assessment that are relevant to those who design and deliver assessment to tertiary students.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Sustainable assessment has been proposed as an idea that focused on the contribution of assessment to learning beyond the timescale of a given course. It was identified as an assessment that meets the needs of the present in terms of the demands of formative and summative assessment, but which also prepares students to meet their own future learning needs. This paper reviews the value of such a notion for assessment; how it has been taken up over the past 15 years in higher education and why it might still be needed. It identifies how it has been a successful intervention in assessment discourse. It explores what more is needed to locate assessment as an intervention to focus on learning for the longer term. It shows how sustainable assessment can help bridge the gap between assessment and learning, and link to ideas such as self-regulation, students' making judgements about their own work and course-wide assessment.

This paper asks the question: do people with different levels of research productivity and identification as a researcher think of research differently? It discusses a study that differentiated levels of research productivity among English and Australian academics working in research-intensive environments in three broad discipline areas: science, engineering and technology; social science and humanities; and medicine and health sciences. The paper explores the different conceptions of research held by these academics in terms of their levels of research productivity, their levels of research training, whether they considered themselves an active researcher and a member of a research team, and their disciplinary differences.

Health professions education is characterised by work-based learning and relies on effective verbal feedback. However the literature reports problems in feedback practice, including lack of both learner engagement and explicit strategies for improving performance. It is not clear what constitutes high quality, learner-centred feedback or how educators can promote it. We hoped to enhance feedback in clinical practice by distinguishing the elements of an educator's role in feedback considered to influence learner outcomes, then develop descriptions of observable educator behaviours that exemplify them.An extensive literature review was conducted to identify i) information substantiating specific components of an educator's role in feedback asserted to have an important influence on learner outcomes and ii) verbal feedback instruments in health professions education, that may describe important educator activities in effective feedback. This information was used to construct a list of elements thought to be important in effective feedback. Based on these elements, descriptions of observable educator behaviours that represent effective feedback were developed and refined during three rounds of a Delphi process and a face-to-face meeting with experts across the health professions and education.The review identified more than 170 relevant articles (involving health professions, education, psychology and business literature) and ten verbal feedback instruments in health professions education (plus modified versions). Eighteen distinct elements of an educator's role in effective feedback were delineated. Twenty five descriptions of educator behaviours that align with the elements were ratified by the expert panel.This research clarifies the distinct elements of an educator's role in feedback considered to enhance learner outcomes. The corresponding set of observable educator behaviours aim to describe how an educator could engage, motivate and enable a learner to improve...

As the field of health care simulation matures, new questions about appropriate pedagogy are emerging which present challenges to research and practices. This has implications for how we investigate and deliver effective simulations, how we conceive effectiveness, and how we make decisions about investment in simulation infrastructure. In this article, we explore two linked challenges that speak to these wider concerns: student diversity and large cohorts. We frame these within contemporary simulation practices and offer recommendations for research and practice that will account for students' varying cultural expectations about learning and clinical practice in the Australian context.

Can extended opportunities for self-assessment over time help students develop the capacity to make better judgements about their work? Using evidence gathered through students' voluntary self-assessment of their performance with respect to assessment tasks in two different disciplines at two Australian universities, the paper focuses on the effects of sequences of units of study and the use of different types of assessment task (written, oral, analysis, and project) in the development of student judgement. Convergence between student criteria-based gradings of their own performance in units of study and those allocated by tutors was analysed to explore the calibration of students' judgement over time. First, it seeks to replicate analyses from an earlier smaller-scale study to confirm that students' judgements can be calibrated through continuing opportunities for self- assessment and feedback. Second, it extends the analysis to coherently designed sequences of units of study and explores the effects of different types of assessment. It finds that disruptive patterns of assessment within a sequence of subjects can reduce convergence between student and tutor judgements.

This paper explores a dilemma in continuing professional learning: the way learning is typically inscribed in continuing professional education (CPE) frameworks differs from that elicited from practice. It examines these differences in relation to both different underlying assumptions about learning and varying epistemological perspectives as well as the different purposes of CPE frameworks of professional bodies and organisations. It suggests that the dominant adoption of narrower conceptions of learning in professional organisations' frameworks ignores understandings about work and learning emerging from recent research in the field of workplace learning and focuses on a view that may privilege formal provision. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research directions in developing alternative continuing professional learning frameworks.

© 2014 SEFI. With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.

This paper presents the preliminary results of a multi-phased qualitative investigation of continuing professional learning. The study focused on the identification of common engineering practices that contribute to learning. This paper examines a particular practice, that of the site-walk. It draws on practice theory, an emerging set of conceptual resources used in workplace learning research. Data was elicited via qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups and site visits with experienced engineers employed in a large Australian engineering company. It was analysed using the lens of practice theory. The findings suggest that site-walks, while an everyday practice for engineers, are also highly learning-rich. This understanding has implications for continual professional learning, and for educators of novice engineers.

The preparation of future professionals for practice is a key focus of higher education institutions. Among a range of approaches is the use of simulation peda- gogies. While simulation is often justified as a direct bridge between higher education and professional practice, this paper questions this easy assumption. It develops a conceptually driven argument to cast new light on simulation and its unarticulated potential in professional formation. The argument unfolds in, and is illustrated via, three accounts of a simulation event in an Australian undergraduate nursing program. This begins with a familiar approach, moves to one that problematizes this through a focus on disruption, culminating in a third that draws on socio-material theorisations. Here, simulation is conceived as emergent, challenging stable notions of fidelity, common in simulation literature. New possibilities of simulation in the production of agile practitioners and learners in practice are surfaced. This paper extends and enriches thinking by providing distinctive new ways of understanding simulation and the relationship it affords between education and professional practice, and by illuminating the untapped potential of simulation for producing agile practitioners.

Changes in expectations of research education worldwide have seen the rise of new demands beyond supervision and have highlighted the need for academic leadership in research education at a local level. Based on an interview study of those who have taken up local leadership roles in four Australian universities, this paper maps and analyses different dimensions of the emerging leadership role of research education coordination. It argues that while there is increasing clarity of what is required, there are considerable tensions in the nature of the coordination role and how coordination is to be executed. In particular, what leadership roles are appropriate and how can they be positioned effectively within universities? The paper draws on the Integrated Competing Values Framework to focus on the activities of coordination and on ideas of distributed leadership to discuss the leadership that characterises coordination. It is argued that without acknowledgement of the influences that coordinators need to exert and the positioning and support needed to achieve this, the contemporary agenda for research education will not be realised. © 2014 © 2014 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management.

Despite increasing research and scholarship in the area of academic development in recent years, it remains an under-theorised field of endeavour. The paper proposes that academic developers take a view on what constitutes academic work and see it as a form of professional practice. It discusses the features of practice theory that illuminate professional practice and identifies three foci for the application of these ideas within academic development: practice development, fostering learning-conducive work and deliberately locating activity within practice. It also suggests that academic development be viewed as a practice and points to features within its own traditions on which to build.

Student feedback is a contentious and confusing issue throughout higher education institutions. This paper develops and analyses two models of feedback: the first is based on the origins of the term in the disciplines of engineering and biology. It posit

One of the implicit aims of higher education is to enable students to become better judges of their own work. This paper examines whether students who voluntarily engage in self-assessment improve in their capacity to make those judgements. The study utilises data from a web-based marking system that provides students with the opportunity to assess themselves on each criterion for each assessment task throughout a programme of study. Student marks were compared with those from tutors to plot changes over time. The findings suggest that overall students judgements do converge with those of tutors, but that there is considerable variation across achievement levels, with weaker students showing little improvement. Whilst the study is limited by the exigencies of voluntary participation and thus consequential gaps in the data set, it shows how judgement over time can be demonstrated and points to the potential for more systematic interventions to improve students judgements. It also illustrates the use of the web-based marking and feedback software (ReView) that has considerable utility in aiding self-assessment research.

International research collaboration raises questions about how groups from different national and institutional contexts can work together for common ends. This paper uses issues that have arisen in carrying out the first stage of an international resea

Seeking a different angle on feedback in clinical education: the learner as seeker, judge and user of performance information Seeking a different angle on feedback in clinical education: the learner as seeker, judge and user of performance information

Although there have been increasing attempts to involve undergraduate students in conducting research, a pivotal moment when students engage in knowledge production is during honours programmes. Honours programmes, particularly those in Australia, seek to develop students capacity to engage in higher order thinking that may lead to knowledge production. This transition is facilitated through advanced disciplinary knowledge, research training and a research project. However, there is a pedagogical tension between requiring students to engage in this deeper level of inquiry at the same time as they complete a heavy knowledge acquisition load. This paper explores how a number of disciplines in Australia balance these elements of the honours curricula. It argues that the combination of these curriculum goals can make it difficult for students to apply the knowledge they have gained in advanced disciplinary and research training courses to their research project work. This has serious implications for honours programmes.

Challenges conventional theories underpinning HRD that typically focus on the objects of learning - individuals, jobs, training. Discusses two case studies (public utility and winery) of learning across boundaries through, for example, the organisational practice of 'acting up' and identifies implications for HRD practice and practitioners.

Many professions have requirements for professional development activities to ensure continuing registration or membership. These commonly focus on participation in a limited range of activities. This paper questions the assumptions behind such approache

The paper examines influences of doctoral study and structured early career interventions on academic work. It uses evidence from a survey in six Australian universities (n1158) to explore academics engagement with research and teaching development. It regards universities as social situations that are ambiguous, presenting conflicting opportunities for growth and development and the pursuit of personal objectives. Academics emphases on different aspects of academic work involve complex responses that are subject to many influences. It shows that doctoral work may avoid developing key skills that academics need and that the extent to which doctoral study prepares academics for different aspects of their role is different in different disciplines and institutions. It also shows that the conduct of academics in their major roles is little influenced by the training and development they engage in. The paper discusses the survey findings in terms of what constrains and what enables academics to take up particular development opportunities. It argues that to understand academic practice, analysis of how organisational influences are interpreted is needed.

The Honours undergraduate degree in Australia is unlike that in most other countries. It has taken on a particular significance as a qualification, as a pathway to and a pre-requisite for direct entry into doctoral programs. This paper explores the outco

A new approach to assessment design is considered through the process of developing a set of capabilities for osteopathic practice that starts from an understanding of a concept of 'practice' applicable to real, situated osteopathic healthcare. Appropria

The purpose of this paper is to challenge models of workplace learning that seek to isolate or manipulate a limited set of features to increase the probability of learning. Such models typically attribute learning (or its absence) to individual engagement, manager expectations or organizational affordances and are therefore at least implicitly causative. In contrast, we discuss the contributions of complexity theory principles such as emergence and novelty that suggest that learning work is more a creative and opportunistic process that emerges from contextualized interactional understandings among actors. Using qualitative case study methods, we discuss the experiences of workers in two organizations asked to 'act up' in their managers' role to ensure work continuity. We believe the differences in how workers take up these opportunities result from a complex combination of situational factors that generate invitational patterns signalled from and by various understandings and interactions among actors doing collective work.

Noting the ever-increasing encroachment of discourses and practices from the private sector on public education providers, this paper argues that such organizations exist within competing sets of differences that seek to define and fix the meaning of 'education' and 'business'. We report on fieldwork conducted in an adult education college in Sydney. In the Australian context these colleges are referred to as community colleges and their history is one based in a strong liberal tradition. Utilising Judith Butler's idea of 'drag' we consider the effects of changing modes of governance in the college with specific reference to the stories told to us about it. Our discussion suggests that the organisation was caught between identifying itself with a masculinised discourse of business and a discourse of community cast as its feminised other. In navigating between these, the college was seen to perform as a 'drag king' an organisation performing the masculine but in so doing, undoing its gendered status. This leads us to suggest that the incorporation of business and market-based discourse into the management of community education is something that is actively resisted and undermined through such forms of gendered transgression. We conclude by proposing that this organization's capacity to perform drag is a contributing factor to its overall success, and particularly in an economic climate where many not-for-profit organisations are floundering.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of "learning" through what we have termed "integrated development practices". These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses the ways in which learning and being a learner were talked about and enacted with regard to one of the integrated development practices identified in a study of four different organisations - safety practices, and how learning and being a learner regarding safety were legitimate in one of the organisations. Data are drawn from semi-structured interviews with members of a variety of workgroups in one major division of the organisation. Findings - Interviewees' responses reflected that learning was fully embedded as an accepted part of a necessary function of the organisation. This use of a learning discourse is discussed in the light of findings from an earlier study on informal learning at work that suggested that learning and the identity of being a learner were sometimes resisted in the everyday culture of work.Originality/value - Using the theorisations of practice of Schatzki and the lifelong education framework of Delors the paper discusses the implications of these findings to examine when it is acceptable to articulate learning as part of work and be identified as a learner at work.

This paper takes up understandings of organisations where practices constitute and frame past and present work, as well as future work practice possibilities. Within this view, work practices, and thus organisations,are both perpetuated and varied through employees' enactments of work. Using a practice lens, we are particularly interested in the ways workers simultaneously maintain and alter practices in their workplace' we characterise this as re-making one's job. This perspective challenges ways in which managers often depict jobs and everyday work' as rational, linear and easily describable. We suggest that workers at various levels of responsibility contribute more to the formation of organisational practices than is often assumed. The processes of re-making jobs and remaking organisational practices create tensions that we posit as sites for learning.

Learning in workplaces is always mediated through talk. It is tempting for management to seek to utilise everyday talk as part of learning and therefore enhance productivity. This paper examines the responses of workers to interventions that aim to formalise informal conversations at work as part of an explicit workplace learning strategy. It draws on interviews with managers and workers in a public sector organisation to examine their experience of these practices. The paper raises questions about whether interventions in the name of fostering informal learning may well be hindering what they seek to promote.

There is growing interest in the application of citizen participation within all areas of public sector service development, where it is increasingly promoted as a significant strand of post-neoliberal policy concerned with re-imagining citizenship and more participatory forms of citizen/consumer engagement. The application of such a perspective within health services, via co-production, has both beneficial, but also problematic implications for the organisation of such services, for professional practice and education. Given the disappointing results in increasing consumer involvement in health services via 'choice' and 'voice' participation strategies, the question of how the more challenging approach of co-production will fare needs to be addressed. The article discusses the possibilities and challenges of system-wide co-production for health. It identifies the discourse and practice contours of co-production, differentiating co-production from other health consumer-led approaches. Finally, it identifies issues critically related to the successful implementation of co-production where additional theorisation and research are required.

Project work has been a common feature of undergraduate degree programmes for many years. While it has been named in a variety of ways, it typically involves students undertaking a substantial learning activity that is partly self-initiated and managed. More recently, programmes organised around the idea of work-based learning partnerships have emerged. These can be regarded as programmes that rely on significant amounts of work-based project work. This paper examines the implications of practices in these new programmes for project advising more generally. It argues that the conception of the role of academics in project work needs to change from one focused on project supervision to one of learning adviser. It identifies key features of this practice and discusses differences in advising from one context to another. It suggests that the activities in which academics engage need to be reappraised and that the skills and knowledge of those acting in the role of adviser be extended.

Research education has been dominated in recent years by policy- driven preoccupations with doctoral completions, funding and contributions to the economy. This has led universities to focus on enhanced institutional support for research degrees, with an

Higher education institutions are responding to globalisation in various ways. This study describes and analyses challenges encountered in a recent case of global collaboration between four universities on different continents in developing a web-based m

Research in workplace learning needs to take into account the reflexive nature of researchers' learning. Explores how members of a research team examined their own learning and collaboration through a study of transcripts of interactions between them during planning meetings and reflections upon them. Identifies implications for collaboration and learning about workplace learning. A key finding was that experienced researchers and adult educators had difficulty legitimising a focus on their own workplace learning. This points to the problems likely to arise in getting others, who do not have a discourse of learning readily available to them, to take informal workplace learning seriously. © 2001, MCB UP Limited

Assessment practices in higher education institutions tend not to equip students well for the processes of effective learning in a learning society. The purposes of assessment should be extended to include the preparation of students for sustainable assessment. Sustainable assessment encompasses the abilities required to undertake those activities that necessarily accompany learning throughout life in formal and informal settings. Characteristics of effective formative assessment identified by recent research are used to illustrate features of sustainable assessment. Assessment acts need both to meet the specific and immediate goals of a course as well as establishing a basis for students to undertake their own assessment activities in the future. To draw attention to the importance of this, the idea that assessment always has to do double duty is introduced.

Universities are at a pivotal point in their history and are undergoing dramatic changes. One of the more significant of these changes is the move towards instrumental programmes of learning, as manifest for instance in workplace and work-based learning. This paper argues that this trend threatens the existence of the liberal university, where knowledge is pursued predominantly for its own sake. The paper identifies four dominant discourses in higher education and suggests that these discourses co-exist with one another, and are sometimes dominant, at other times recessive. It argues that the trend to a post-industrialised labour market has seen the emergence of a vocationalised discourse in higher education, which stresses the instrumental at the expense of the liberal.

Various forms of peer, collaborative or cooperative learning, particularly small group activities, are increasingly used within university courses to assist students meet a variety of learning outcomes. These include working collaboratively with others, taking responsibility for their own learning and deepening their understanding of specific course content. The potential benefits of peer learning have long been recognised and are especially relevant today. However, many existing assessment practices act to undermine the goals of peer learning and lead students to reject learning cooperatively. If assessment gives students the message that only individual achievement is valued, and that collaborative effort is akin to cheating, then the potential of peer learning will not be realised. Inappropriate assessment practices may also lead to unhelpful forms of competition within and between groups that prevent groups functioning effectively. This paper examines some of the main assessment issues in connection with peer learning and suggests ways in which the benefits of this approach can be maintained while still meeting the formal assessment requirements of the course. It discusses the use of group assessment, peer feedback and self-assessment, assessment of participation and negotiated assessment and concludes with the identification of a number of issues which remain to be addressed. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Reflection and the promotion of reflective practice have become popular features of the design of educational programmes. This has often led to learning being more effectively facilitated. However, alongside these positive initiatives have grown more dis

The negotiated learning contract is potentially one of the most useful tools available to those interested in promoting flexible approaches to learning. A learning contract is able to address the diverse learning needs of different students and may be designed to suit a variety of purposes both on course and in the workplace. However, contracts need to be carefully introduced and supported and problems can arise if they are used in inflexible ways. This paper draws upon research conducted into the use of learning contracts to identify key issues which need to be considered before using them, and to suggest ways in which they may be developed. The authors make several recommendations for introducing contract learning and identify different styles of contracting in academic courses.

The negotiated learning contract is potentially one of the most useful tools available to those interested in promoting flexible approaches to learning. A learning contract is able to address the diverse learning needs of different students and may be de

Much time and effort has gone into trying to demonstrate an empirical link between research activity and teaching performance. In general, the correlations between these factors have been shown to be low. This paper argues that the attempt to find such a

This paper starts with the experience of the author and presents a perspective on teaching and learning in higher education which regards the experience of the learner as primary. The experience which is to be taken into account includes both that prior to the current learning event and that which is prompted by it. Emphasis is given to learning of all kinds in the cognitive, affective and conative realms. In the paper some propositions about learning from experience are outlined, a model of learning from experience is discussed and implications are drawn for the design of courses and subjects. Major areas for development are identified as those of recognising and responding to prior learning, developing reflective practice and self-assessment skills, and using problem-based, holistic and contextualised learning approaches. Copyright © 1993 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The paper describes an approach to assessment in which students create a comprehensive and analytical summary of their learning in a given subject. The self-assessment schedule, as it is called, has been used in contexts in which there is an emphasis on

A frequently stated aim of physiotherapy educational programs is to produce graduates capable of, and wishing to pursue, lifelong learning. To help achieve this goal, curricula commonly include the promotion of independent or self-directed learning. This paper supports the need for developing self-directed learning, orientation and skills and argues that this can be best achieved by bringing these skills into the mainstream of tertiary education programs such as physiotherapy, rather than isolating them to specific subjects. The challenge of mainstreaming is to appreciate how the basic ideas of self-directed learning can be incorporated into all areas of the curriculum. This paper presents strategies, issues and problems associated with mainstreaming of self-directed learning. © 1991, Australian Physiotherapy Association. All rights reserved.

Increasing interest is now being focused on how adults learn from experience, but there is no adequate framework to assist learners and those who facilitate learning-promote learning in the midst of experience. This paper provides a way of conceptualising experience-based learning which considers the personal foundation of experience of learners, their intent and their interaction with a learning milieu. Two elements of the learning experience-noticing and intervening-are discussed in detail. The implications for the facilitation of learning are explored. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

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While the educational benefits of student self-assessment are being increasingly recognised and self-assessment procedures introduced into post-secondary courses of many different kinds, the use of self-assessment for grading purposes is a more controversial matter. Is there a role for student self-assessment in formal assessment proceedings? If there is to be a role, what should it be? This paper focuses on these questions and examines why a marking role for self-assessment should be considered and what evidence is available on the reliability of student-generated marks. The implications of these findings are considered and strategies are proposed to improve student markers reliability and to incorporate self-assessment indirectly into the formal assessment process. © 1989, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

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A method of incorporating self and peer marking in an undergraduate electronics subject is described and discussed. Similar methods could probably be used in other technical subjects. Its educational benefits are: greatly improved feedback to the students, additional reinforcement, and practice at self assessment. The method described has a high degree of student acceptance, and appears to produce reliable and valid marks. It can be incorporated into conventionally taught courses without disrupting teaching. The use of self and peer assessment in an isolated subject requires a great deal of attention to the details of the procedure, especially if it is to be part of the formal assessment in the subject. The procedure developed here requires the preparation of detailed model solutions and an extensive clerical procedure, but alternatives with a simpler clerical process are also possible. The nature and amount of the examination load on faculty is different when self and peer marking is used. For small classes it involves more work for faculty, but for large classes it reduces the work load. It is one of the few educational innovations that can do this, and at the same time have educational benefits.

No matter how participative a course might be in its conduct, it is normal for the aims to be specified by staff for students, the programme to be planned by staff for students and particularly for the assessment to be one way—of students by staff. It is possible for courses to be established on a different basis, and it is especially necessary when one is dealing with professional education. This paper focuses on an example of a course which is designed jointly by staff and students: the science education component of a postexperience Graduate Diploma in Science Education at the Western Australian Institute of Technology. In keeping with the philosophy of the course this paper has been prepared by the staff member concerned (D J Boud) and one of the students (M T Prosser). A collaboratively designed course cannot be undertaken lightly for not only does it violate some of the norms of teaching in higher education as we know it, but it also places peculiar demands on both staff and students. These are both of an interpersonal, group interaction kind and of a strucutural, organizational type. The aim of this paper is to describe the main features of the course, to examine some of the demands that it makes, and to explore the applicability of its concepts to other areas of higher education. Copyright © 1980, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

This paper offers an account of the development of a project entitled 'Educational Objectives in Applied Science' at the Universities of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt. The first part focuses on the project's choice of style and approach to the replanning of engineering courses within an established system. Although every such project faces unique hazards, some issues are common to any activity which aims to influence teaching and learning within universities. The second part of the paper examines how course development might best be encouraged within science and engineering faculties. It points to some of the resulting problems and to ways of overcoming them. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.

This paper aims to describe the original formulation and some of the subsequent interpretations, applications and evaluations of the selfpaced method of instruction known as the Keller plan, or the Personalised System of Instruction. Emphasis is placed upon bringing together evidence from the authors' own evaluations of such courses in the U.K., and from literature in this field. It is intended that this should give a framework for discussion of the method and indicate its advantages and limitations to potential users. Copyright © 1975, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

A simple method of diagnosing areas for course improvement in university science and engineering laboratory courses is described. A first year physics laboratory course is examined in terms of a set of aims. A questionnaire was used for staff and students to rate the importance of these aims in the cases (i) of each group's conception of what an ideal course in the subject should be, and (ii) each group's rating of the "traditional" and "non-traditional" components of the particular course under investigation. One means of identifying specific areas of improvement is out-lined. The potentialities of the technique are discussed. © 1973 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.

This edited collection provides a state-of-the-art discussion of recent, cutting-edge work into assessment for learning in higher education.

Abstract: This chapter examines how insights from workplace learning research might be used to problematize some common understandings of higher education practice and lead to new ones. It begins by outlining features of the changing higher education context that have implications for how we might think differently about traditional higher education. Following this it contrasts practices in higher education with several themes drawn from two decades of workplace learning research (e.g. learning as embedded, situated; social, and formed through practice). It focuses on specific higher education practices (both existing and possible) that have potential to meet new and different learning needs of the changing student population. Implications centre around four ideas. The first is that being a 'learner' is not as powerful as being a producer. The second is that the tasks students engage in should not be seen as isolated from the broader context they will be entering on graduation. The third idea is that assessment needs to be appropriated by learners, and finally, students must more actively construct their own learning.

As the earlier chapters have shown, there is now considerable research-based knowledge about feedback for learning in a wide variety of modes and contexts. There are also a vast number of different ways of undertaking feedback that have been used. Many of these authors challenge common taken-for-granted assumptions about what feedback is and how it should be conducted. However, even if the challenge is accepted and Qllr notion of feedback reframed, there is the problem of choice of particular strategies and approaches. On what basis should feedback strategies be selected for any given purpose in any given situation? At what stage is it appropriate that such decisions are made? Who should be involved in them? And, should these decisions change as learners advance along the novice to expert spectrum in their field of study? This chapter brings together the themes of the book to focus on the design and choice of feedback approaches. It seeks to provide a summary resource to aid decision-making. It starts by revie"Wing some of the main messages that have arisen so far and mOves to what needs to be done to establish a program climate conducive to healthy feedback practices and produce a particular feedback episode. Rather than provide a reference-rich account, we have used our o\\tTI judgement about what has been presented earlier to generate key decision po~ts in planning for learning and the issues that need to be considered at each pomt. We do not seek to be prescriptive but to raise questions about what might be considered at each stage of thinking about a program. The chapter ends by reflecting on how organisational and dispositional changes might be made to move from a conventional view of feedback to one that has a serious influence on learning.

We all experience the influence of feedback in our lives and in our work. We are told that we can't park our car in a particular space, and we choose to go elsewhere. Our students tell us that they don't understand a point we have made in class and we find another way of explaining it. We get referees' comments on a paper submitted to a journal, we make revisions and resubmit it. These are familiar examples of everyday feedback. Feedback is a normal part of our lives; it is ubiquitous. If it seems to work so normally and so regularly, why then does it appear to be so troublesome in higher and professional education? Why is it that students complain more about feedback than almost any others parts of their courses? Is what we are doing so wrong, or are there other explanations of what is rapidly becoming a crisis of concern?

Almost all students and teachers spend a vast amount of time writing. Paradoxically, in the age of electronic media, \VIi.ring, emails or 'texting' has replaced many other forms of communication, so when the opportunity arises to give or receive feedback there is a high likelihood that it will be delivered in written form. There are great differences in what and how we write. For example, as young researchers, we might spend a week or tw-o blitzing out a long rambling article. Then, in the struggle to communicate to others, over the following many months, we hone the paper into something that somebody else would like to read, using many self-feedback loops. This type of auto-feedback forms the major part of most academics' experience of feedback. Finally when we ran out of our own resources, or when our writing showed visible improvement, we sent it to someone else for judgement or formal feedback. Sometimes that person was the editor of the intended journal, and sometimes it was just a colleague, Either way, there was usually a long wait, and the results were altogether unpredictable. 'iI1ith all this writing being done, and with the amount of self-feedback that we generate, one might think that: a) a lot of feedback to others gets delivered via writing; b) guidance about how to give written feedback is pretty well formulated; c) this guidance is underpinned by substantive research on written feedback.

Feedback has proved problematic for individual learners, for teachers and for institutions. The lack and availability of it is criticised by students. Teachers bemoan the burden of marking. And leaders of educational institutions wonder why, of all things they have to deal with, feedback creates so much difficulty. There is no shortage of proposals and recipes for action. Is it just a matter of seriously attending to these and ensuring that they are put into practice? If only it were clear what feedback was and how it could be implemented well, then the problems should severely diminish. The fact that so much has been written about the topic and so much energy has been expended without resolving the problem suggests more of the same is not enough. So much has been invested in the idea that it can't be wished away; it has to be confronted. New ways of thinking about feedback are needed. A clear view of current assumptions and practice is needed as a starting point, but it is also important to step back and examine feedback in its wider context to see what it promises and what it might be reasonably be expected to do.

Practice-based education is establishing itself as a new term in higher education in Australia. It is used not only to encompass those elements of professional education that have traditionally taken place in a practice setting (e.g. in the areas of clinical placement in health and practice teaching in education), but also a dimension of any higher education program that engages students with the practice of whatever students study. The questions to be considered though are: does the adoption of this term signify a new approach, or is it merely a rebadging of longstanding activities within a new discourse? Even if it is only a relatively minor reworking of existing ideas, does it allow the possibility of new kinds of pedagogical and curriculum practices to emerge from a new configuration? Can this shift become the starting point for a more critical approach that brings university courses more fully into the world of professional activity?

Considerations of employee-driven innovation generally posit innovation as an advance in the substantive products, services and/or processes of an organisation. More broadly, innovation can also refer to anything that seeks to do something new, or address a concern that would not otherwise be met. Employees contribute to innovation in many ways: they can generate and/or implement a product or service; they can generate and/or implement new technologies; however, they can also influence the ways in which an organisation adapts and evolves over time in more subtle ways through instigating work practice changes. Although these more subtle changes may not appear under the banner of organisational innovation they nevertheless contribute to the creation and application of new organisational processes, practices and outputs. They may also never be part of the conscious and explicit agenda of the organisation or be something that managers have a strong role in initiating. However, their effects can be cumulative and substantial.

In this chapter, we connect and challenge two conventional assumptions in workplace learning research and organizational change research: that learning can be understood isolated from its interrelationship with work and that managing change is a process to revert organizations back to desirable forms of stability. We believe the nexus of learning and change in organizational work lies in unpacking the apparent paradox between how work practices regularly get carried forward (persist and perpetuate), yet also adapted (change) by workers to achieve the purposes of work. We draw significantly from the theoretical writings of Schatzki and argue that practice theory has much to contribute in conceptualizing more dynamic views of organizing, work and learning. We illustrate our use of Schatzkian concepts by discussing how workers at an Australian utility company using safety practices to learn how to become new kinds of safe workers.

This chapter provides a snapshot of research in workplace learning in Australia from the perspective of some of its key players. Workplace learning as an interdisciplinary field covers a wide range of research and programme interests. This is exemplified in the diversity of journals that publish research on workplace learning (Fenwick, 2006). The range and complexity of the field contributes to its richness, but at the same time it presents interesting challenges in terms of making decisions on what is and what is not workplace learning. In order to identify and summarise the theoretical frameworks, conceptions and contributions to understandings of Australian workplace learning knowledge and practices we used an approach that focused on the researchers' own representation of their workplace learning research. At the same time we also recognise that as authors of this chapter we are making our own selection of what should be included within the scope of workplace learning research and we are re-presenting the researchers' representations of their work.

A brief picture of the broad socio-political context in Australia is provided in order to draw attention to features that influence research in workplace learning. We believe that the way research in workplace learning is undertaken and the nature and shape of its contributions to knowledge are a consequence of a dynamic relationship between academic researchers, institutional settings and government policies. The policies and settings provide both boundaries and opportunities, and the way these are enacted upon is influenced by a number of factors to do with the researchers — their disciplinary histories and professional trajectories, together with their institutional, national and international networks.

We begin the chapter by explaining our methodological approach. This is followed by a description of some of the features of the Australian research policy context of workplace learning. This leads into a secti...

In this chapter I argue that assessment should be oriented towards developing practice, even when the particularities of practice and the specific contexts for practice are not known. Indeed, a future-orientation is especially required when the specific demands of practice are unknown and unknowable. Assessment needs to do more than cel1iry; it also has an essential educational role that, if neglected, means that students are not prepared for the uncertainties they face. The emphasis needs to be on the processes of acquisition of knowledge and skills and how learners can develop their own capabilities and those of others. Such an orientation has profound implications for the way assessment in higher education is conducted, both in initial and continuing professional education.

Notions of reflection and reflective practice have hecome well established in professional education since the late 1980s. While some applications of these 1deas m courses have distorted their original intentions and taken an excessively instrumental. approach to their use, they have nevertheless provided useful frammg deVICes to help conceptualise some important processes in profeSSIOnal learnmg. One of the reasons why they were readily accepted is because they sh:u:ed an individualised view of learning with the very program?, e~ In whIch they were used. In the 2000s we are, however, seeing a q,:,esrlOO!ng ?f an overly individualistic view of learning previously associated with reflectIOn, a f~us on the nature of professional practice and an exploratlOn of alternatIve conceptions chat view reflection within the context of serrings wh~ch necessarily have more of a group- or team-based work oneoratlOn. ThIS chapter questions whether we should reject earlier views of reflection, rehabilitate them to capture their previous potential or move to new ways of tegarding reflection that are more in keeping with what we know abour the context of practice

Assessment in higher education is being challenged by a multiplicity of demands. The activities predominantly used examinations, assignments and other kinds of tests have emerged from within an educational tradition lightly influenced by ideas from psychological measurement, but mostly influenced by longstanding cultural practices in the academic disciplines. Assessment in higher education has for a long time been a process influenced more from within the university rather than externally. It has typically been judged in terms of how well it meets the needs of educational institutions for selection and allocation of places in later courses or research study, and whether it satisfies the expectations of the almost totally exclusive academic membership of examination committees. Within courses, it has been judged by how well it meets the needs of those teaching. In more recent times it is judged in terms of how well it addresses the learning outcomes for a course

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BACKGROUND Recent national and international research has identified a number of gaps in the development of engineering graduate capabilities: one is the real-world problem-solving ability, which is linked to a lack of integration of theoretical and practical knowledge (ASEE 2009; King,2008; Royal Academy of Engineering, 2006; Sheppard, Macatanga, Colby & Sullivan 2009; Male, Bush & Chapman 2009; Walther & Radcliffe 2007). Another is written (and spoken) communication (King, 2008; Male, Bush & Chapman 2011). There is strong evidence to indicate that these gaps occur in part as a result of a predominance of engineering curricula in universities which emphasise knowledge acquisition, and the prevailing assessment tasks that focus learning on atomised pieces of knowledge. Such an approach encourages surface learning approaches, resulting in graduates who may lack the integrated knowledge required for engineering practice and who have limited communication capabilities. PURPOSE There is, however, a body of research that suggests deep approaches to learning in the disciplines can be achieved through particular kinds of writing that provide the opportunity to explore concepts which link theory and practice, thus developing both writing ability and integrated understanding. This paper presents the preliminary phase of a study to investigate the strategic use of discursive writing to foster both a deeper approach to learning and enhanced written communication skills in the engineering curriculum. The study focuses on discursive writing as a means of providing students with the opportunity to explore the theories and concepts that they are learning, in order to integrate knowledge from different parts of the curriculum and to link the theories to engineering practice. DESIGN/METHOD In order to investigate how writing is currently practised and assessed in Australian engineering curricula, a preliminary analysis of written assessment tasks in a unit of study in the mechani...

Conference proceedings

This paper reports on the first phase of an Australian inter-disciplinary partnership study concerned with professional learning of experienced engineers. It is a theoretically motivated, qualitative paper that aims to produce detailed descriptions of professional learning that arise within professional engineering work. The paper uses practice theory to conceptualise professional learning. By using `practices as the units of analysis, professional learning is understood as an integral part of everyday work practices that is embodied, relational and material rather than an individual attribute. The paper concludes by suggesting that practice theory may provide organisations with an alternative perspective of workplace learning, inviting them to reconsider how professional learning is acknowledged, rewarded and fostered in organisations

This paper reports on the first phase of an Australian inter-disciplinary partnership study concerned with professional learning of experienced engineers. It is a theoretically motivated, qualitative paper that aims to produce detailed descriptions of professional learning that arise within professional engineering work. The paper uses practice theory to conceptualise professional learning. By using `practices as the units of analysis, professional learning is understood as an integral part of everyday work practices that is embodied, relational and material rather than an individual attribute. The paper concludes by suggesting that practice theory may provide organisations with an alternative perspective of workplace learning, inviting them to reconsider how professional learning is acknowledged, rewarded and fostered in organisations

It is well recognised that changes in the contemporary world demand that professionals continuously learn. Often this continual professional learning takes the shape of formal courses, seminars and other obviously educational events. The starting point of this paper is an acknowledgement that people also learn in the day-to-day practices that constitute their work. Work can be understood as a bundle of practices that are typically shared by most people employed in that profession. For engineers, and experienced engineers in particular, an example might be attending design review meetings, toolbox talks and or carrying out site walks. In this paper we posit that these practices afford important opportunities for professional learning.

The point we explore in this paper, is how can we conceptualise our role in adult education when =the field` itself is so diverse? Moreover, it is =curious and curiouser to think about our role in =the field` before we can actually articulate what the field is? Is it like the grin on Lewis Carroll`s Cheshire cat, or do we still have a tangible practice to pursue?

Opportunities for expanding what is known about workplace learning can be missed when the focus of research remains on learners alone. Rather, accounts of learning at work need to acknowledge not only those who learn but who else may be implicated. Such accounts would require a wider lens that notices the work practices and relationships that contribute to learning, and in particular those involving the counterparties to those learning. We cannot talk about learning practices without also naming those who enact the practices. Hence, in this paper we intend `talking up the role of these others, or as others suggest `word (Richardson, 1994: 923) the practices of learning at work and those enacting them into existence. To do this requires looking beyond (or perhaps more accurately, amongst) the learners, as well as toward the workplace relationships and practices that provide opportunities for learning.

In tune with lifelong learning discourses, adult learning is now understood to be anywhere and everywhere in classrooms, in workplaces, in community settings and indeed in everyday life. This distribution of learning sites is accompanied by changing understandings of the relationship of formal and informal learning and of the role of adult education and adult educators. These changes in turn are reshaping learning theories and practices together with redirecting the research focus of adult educators. We suggest that this redirection can be a useful one. By researching learning across contexts, researchers are better able to engage with various kinds of pedagogic practices and therefore can contribute better to the debates and critiques of the changing relationship between education, training and learning.

The paper reports on the initial findings of the ARC project Beyond Training & Learning Integrated Development Projects in Organisations

This paper draws empirical data to explore how workers in one organization are 'inventing' and continue to develop what constitutes their work, ie making up their jobs. Doing so troubles accounts of common work-practices that pre-suppose stable organizational contexts, pre-designed jobs and agent- less workers.

The growth of knowledge work and the construction of the knowledge worker (Drucker 1993) have activated widespread interest in learning in organisations. In this contemporary context, investigations and characterisations of learning (at) work and work as learning, formal versus informal learning and so on, have drawn learning out of its educational, training or institutionally-oriented 'home' to situate it within business practices. New manifestations of learning can be linked to organisational practices such as, for example, coaching and mentoring, and perhaps less obviously to practices of performance management, teamwork, career development, and the like. These organisational practices are creating new meanings and understandings for learning at work and are therefore producing different learning experiences, and workers, from those of the past. We are interested in how and if these organisational practices promote learning while they simultaneously enact organisational functions.

An important rationale for higher education is that it equips students for learning beyond the point of graduation. This paper considers the role that assessment plays in this. It suggests we need to take a new perspective on assessment: assessment to promote learning throughout life. It focuses on ideas that can be used to contribute to the construction of assessment practices and on wider implications for course design. It concludes by exploring barriers to acceptance of this perspective and how they might be addressed.

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth over the past ten years of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in both Australia and the UK. This paper examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The paper provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a Faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors which appear to be important in the successful use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented.

`Building Research Supervision and Training in Australian Universities was undertaken with the aims of identifying existing higher degree research supervisor training provisions; identifying current and future needs of supervisors and making recommendations that assist universities in their ongoing development of effective higher degree research supervisor training.