Global Utilities

La Trobe University
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre

SoLT Research Network

Since 2009, the CTLC has coordinated The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) Research Network. The SoLT meetings/seminars (the second Tuesday of each month, 1-2pm in HUED 108) provide staff at La Trobe with an opportunity to work with others to advance and publish their scholarship of learning and teaching projects and inquiries.

The Tuesday sessions have usually been a mix of different discussions:

  • Journal Club: Which Higher Education Journals to target and how to succeed
  • Writing group: Using Brown’s eight key ideas for writing
  • Disseminating scholarly and research papers and ideas
  • Applying for Teaching and Learning Grants and Awards
  • Developing effective teaching portfolios for probation and promotion

The SoLT network also contains a wiki site designed to support and foster collaboration.

In 2011, the Tuesday sessions are divided into two kinds:

  • Ideas sessions are intended to help participants take a view on the issues/challenges involved in developing the scholarship of learning and teaching.
  • Feedback sessions will usually focus on providing feedback to a La Trobe colleague on a conference paper, a piece of writing or a puzzle/pickle in their SoLT research. These sessions are designed to progress a piece of work toward a publishable outcome.

Semester 1, 2012 Program

All sessions are held on the Melbourne campus (Bundoora) in HUED108, 1-2pm. The sessions will also be video-conferenced to the Bendigo campus. See various venues below.

Session 1: Tuesday 13 March, 1pm - 2pm

What’s your approach to evaluation? An inquiry from Business, Economics and Law

  • Dr Alison Ruth, Business, Economics & Law

Evaluation is an important part of what we do. With Design for Learning progressing, the processes of evaluation need to be clarified and set in place. This short session is designed to investigate the kinds of evaluation that are already in place, the types of data we have access to and to plan ways of using this data and possibly collecting more in the future.

Two main types of evaluation will be defined and discussed (inquiry and audit). There will be a brief investigation of the kinds of questions each of these types can answer.  Participants can expect to have a clearer idea of what approach their evaluation process requires and where to look for specific tools to answer their questions.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 2: Tuesday 27 March, 1-2pm

Information session: Call for papers to a Special Issue of La Trobe initiatives on curriculum, teaching and learning for the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUT&LP)

  • Dr Tai Peseta, CTLC

This is an information, question and answer session for La Trobe staff interested in contributing a manuscript to the Special Issue of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUT&LP), designed specifically to showcase the curriculum, teaching and learning initiatives at La Trobe. Guest edited by Tai Peseta and Tom Angelo, and due for publication in December 2012, the session will clarify the purpose of the Special Issue, and outline the criteria, processes and timelines for participation. Come along if you’re keen to have your work published.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 3:  Tuesday 24 April, 1-2pm

Relying on resonance

  • Assoc Professor Kate Channock, Academic Language & Learning Unit, CTLC

Kate Channock presents an "ideas" session looking at SoLT that is not the product of designed research, but a by-product of teaching: something happens that resonates with discussions in our field, and seems to show something about teaching/learning that is worth communicating with colleagues. Conferences will listen to, and journals will publish, a "critically-inflected narrative", and for people who are immersed in teaching, this kind of scholarship may be more feasible than projects requiring leave, planning, and funding. But what are such narratives composed of? How are they structured? What constitutes evidence? What ethical issues arise? I'll raise these questions in the context of an article I'm working on currently (considering a Thesis Writing Circle from an "academic literacies" perspective), and ask participants to share their own experience with this form of SoLT. As a result of this discussion, participants may be able to identify possibilities of writing up some aspect of their recent teaching experience for publication.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [AP102] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 4: Tuesday 8 May, 1-2pm

Measuring Career Decision Self-Efficacy of Work-Ready Students

  • Jason Brown & Geoffrey Guilfoyle, Career Development Centre

In this presentation we will describe the development of an online, multi-campus career development subject 'Work Ready Skills and Planning Your Career (HUM2WRS)'. This subject has been developed as an elective subject for the new 'Work Ready' degrees and has a focus of reflecting on the development of graduate capabilities outside the curriculum and on engaging students in career planning. The design of the subject has been based on career development theories (DOTS and Chaos Theory of Careers), and particularly focuses on developing student awareness of self, opportunities, and decision making processes. To measure the effectiveness of the teaching and learning activities for this subject, we intend to administer the Career Decision Self-Efficacy (CDSE) scale to students enrolled in HUM2WRS at the beginning and end of semester. The CDSE has been used widely in the career development literature as a dependent measure for evaluating career interventions.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 5: Tuesday 22 May, 1pm-2pm

Understanding troublesome moments and transitional states along the journey form learning to graduate among Occupational Therapy students

  • Dr Tracy Fortune, Priscilla Ennals & Dr Mary Kennedy-Jones, Occupational Therapy, Health Sciences

This session seeks to share our work, and obtain your feedback on a presentation prepared for the 4th Biennial Threshold Concepts Symposium, to be held in Dublin in June 2012. The presentation discusses research conducted to uncover students’ experience of their time in our 2 year graduate entry masters program, and in particular, their conceptions of threshold concepts and troublesome moments along the way. As part of their final week in the program, students were asked to complete a reflective narrative, of up to 2000 words outlining their journey into, through and finally, at the threshold of professional practice. A format to aid the reflective task was adapted from the mythologist and writer, Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’ stages. The ultimate aim of the research is to be better informed as educators about troublesome knowledge in the curriculum.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 6: Tuesday 12 June, 1-2pm

Exploring the ‘Nature of Science’ in undergraduate science courses in Higher Education: rationales and approaches

  • Robyn Yucel, Academic Language and Learning Unit, CTLC

While university undergraduate science programs need to develop students’ knowledge of the major concepts in the various scientific disciplines, there is also a place for promoting a deeper understanding of the nature of science itself. An understanding of what science is, and a critical view of how it works may have a range of benefits for university science students, including higher levels of engagement, better learning of new scientific concepts, improved scientific literacy, and enhanced interdisciplinary research collaborations. This session outlines the main arguments for inclusion of the “Nature of Science” in science undergraduate programs in Australia. A methodology for investigating science academic staff attitudes about the value of learning about the Nature of Science is proposed.  Also proposed is a case study methodology for investigating undergraduate subjects dedicated to the Nature of Science in Australian science faculties. This session aims to open a dialogue to elicit multidisciplinary perspectives on the rationale and proposed approaches for this project.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Session 7: Tuesday 26 June

The “Silent Chinese Student”: The Roles and Interactions of “Kiasu” and “Face”

  • Dr Chris Hodkinson, Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality, Business, Economics and Law

This presentation addresses the apparent reticence of some Chinese students to ask or answer questions in class - a phenomenon which has puzzled many western teachers who perceive this as a barrier to deep learning. In-class reticence can alter the dynamics of small class teaching and affect student results. In addition, the lack of participation may lead staff to doubt their ability to engage students. This presentation details some of the causes of this under-researched phenomenon by identifying relevant cultural elements. The presentation introduces the “kiasu” concept. It then goes on to discuss its complex interaction with the Asian concept of “face” in the western teaching environment. It concludes by suggesting teaching techniques which may assist in offsetting the negative effects of students’ kiasu strategies. Also a research agenda is proposed to further investigate the phenomenon of the “silent Chinese student” and kiasu-like competitive behaviours.

Video conference venues: Bendigo [BUS133] & Albury/Wodonga [Room 4245]

Past Programs and resources

To learn more about SoLT at La Trobe, to participate in a session or to join the email list, contact;

Dr Tai Peseta

Academic and Curriculum Developer

CTLC

Humanities 2, room 107