Research approaches to better engage student learning regarding the determinants of health are somewhat limited. The present study highlights the evolution of an authentic fieldwork assessment and the strategies nursing students used as they navigated the assessment for learning activity outside the classroom, and how these impacted student's…

This paper addresses a niche in studies on immersion programmes for English as second language learners. While studies on the impact of the experience of studying abroad are replete with reports about the enhancement of participants' language proficiency or intercultural skills, the present study investigates the types of language and culture…

The authors evaluated whether a brief group workshop that combined psycho-education and learning strategies improved self-efficacy, attitudes, and anxiety regarding statistics in psychology students. The workshop was completed in Week 1 of a compulsory 1st-year psychology statistics course. Prior to the workshop, the attendees (n = 10) did not…

This paper begins by outlining the "education revolution" policy direction of the Australian federal government, and the ways in which it envisages meeting its goal of having a 40% of the population between 25 and 34 with a Bachelor's degree by 2025, and ensuring that 20% of tertiary students come form LSES backgrounds. This is…

Personalised learning is now broadly endorsed as a key strategy to improve student curricular engagement and academic attainment, but there is also strong critique of this construct. We review claims made for this approach, as well as concerns about its conceptual coherence and effects on different learner cohorts. Drawing on literature around…

This paper presents the results of a study on the impact of a new integrated medical educational design on students' approaches to learning. Although the new program was based on curriculum features identified in the research literature as likely to promote deeper approaches to learning, the results revealed a more complex response from students.…

The sophistication of the integrated world of work and increased recognition of business processes as critical corporate assets require graduates to develop "process orientation" and an "integrated view" of business. Responding to these dynamic changes in business organizations, business schools are also continuing to modify…

Do some forms of student (and school) assessment hinder the introduction of innovative educational practices and the development of innovation skills in education systems? This report focuses on the impact of high-stake summative assessment on innovation and argues that it is possible to reconcile high-stakes assessments and examinations through…

The purpose of this article is to outline how motivation of first year university students can be enhanced through effective pedagogic practices and to discuss policy level decisions that impact upon the cultivation of student motivation. It reports on practices within a specific first year unit, Understanding University Learning, which…

We discuss a recent peer-learning project we undertook as co-conductors of the Young Conservatorium Wind Orchestra at Griffith University. Drawing on current educational theory on peer learning and material from our conducting practice and research, we explore how this approach offers professional conductors the opportunity to work together in an…

Professional learning communities among teachers and schools have been envisioned as a mechanism for development, knowledge building and implementation. However the formation of an effective learning community is more complex than giving teachers a project and asking them to share a room. This paper reports a synergistic interaction between a…

Pimlico State High School is a large urban co-education government secondary school located in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. The school offers a variety of academic and vocationally oriented subjects to over 1,450 students. During the early to mid 1990s, teachers within the Geography Department began searching for new strategies to…

The purpose of reading is for the reader to construct meaning from the text. For many young adults with Down syndrome, knowing what the text is all about is difficult, and so for them the activity of reading becomes simply the practice of word calling. It is suggested in the literature that for those individuals with Down syndrome, learning can…

The National Staff Development Committee of the Vocational Education and Training Sector in Australia is promoting action learning as a preferred professional development strategy to support the implementation of key competencies. Action learning was piloted across five training areas within the Department of Employment, Training, and Further…

As online learning continues to be utilised in diverse ways from courses being delivered fully online through to class websites used to supplement face-to-face classes, and as the technologies continue to develop, research into the effectiveness of this mode of online delivery needs to be an ongoing process. These research findings need to be fed…