Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese international students (CIS) still comprise the largest international cohort in Australian universities. However, limited research has examined perceptions of CIS' learning approaches in Australian universities from the broader context of the students themselves and their Australian lecturers. This study…

Effective professional learning includes the provision of opportunities for teachers to actively engage with learning in a supportive community, where ideas can be shared, trialled, questioned and revised. The professional learning designed within the Embodied Learning in Early Mathematics and Science (ELEMS) Project aimed to assist teachers in…

In Australia, it has been observed that there have been significant declines in the proportion of students studying senior sciences over the last two decades (Commonwealth of Australia 2017 & 2018; Steidtmann et.al, 2023). It has been suggested that one of the causes for this decline could be a link between students' literacy achievement and…

Play is a universal human experience. Often regarded as the unique purview of children, an emerging body of research points to the importance of playfulness in adulthood. This article reports on the research and observations of two teaching artists working in Connected, a Sydney Theatre Company adult-literacy-through-drama programme. This article…

International students are important for creating a multicultural learning environment in their host countries. Most studies on the internationalisation of education have focused on students at the university level and given scant attention to international students in the Australian school sector. This paper reports on a study that utilised a…

This statistical study of 272 dancers, ages 18-96, using Kolb Learning Styles Inventory 4.0, identifies dominant learning cycles, learning styles, and learning style flexibility of the dance participants, and subgroups of notation users, and then compares these results to existing results from other disciplines. The research reveals the depth and…

Learning anatomy and physiology at university can be challenging, as students need to understand both the language of the discipline and complex topics, such as system integration. Yet learning strategies are rarely taught at university, making it difficult for students to adopt new strategies, if their approach to learning has not been effective…

This study employs dramaturgical analysis, the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance, in examining online student interactions. Region-specific activity--front stage (the course LMS) versus backstage (Facebook)--was examined to determine where students spend their time doing class-related tasks. The context for this case…

This paper investigates the learning experience of Chinese students' learning experience in the business Faculty of an Australian university. Chinese students are often characterized as "rote learners" or stereotyped as "reduced Other". Areas of concern are limited to addressing the differences in learning styles, language, and…

This article investigates how adult English language learners from refugee backgrounds respond to teaching strategies that aim to facilitate the promotion of learner autonomy. Interest in learner autonomy has grown significantly in the area of second language (L2) teaching. The culturally appropriate model of autonomy has been widely advocated in…

International students are an important part of today's global university sector. This paper explores, through 10 in-depth interviews, the perceptions of Vietnamese international students studying with regard to their experience of teaching and learning in Australia. The findings indicate that Vietnamese students struggle with language,…

In the Australian mathematics curriculum, Year 12 students (aged 16-17) are asked to solve conditional probability problems that involve the representation of the problem situation with two-way tables or three-dimensional diagrams and consider sampling procedures that result in different correct answers. In a small exploratory study, we…

This paper reports a study, which investigated whether different instructional strategies might interact with individual's cognitive style in learning. A web-based learning package was designed employing three strategies, Interactive Concept Maps, Illustration with Embedded Text and Text-Only. Group Embedded Figure Test was administered to 178…

Arising from the author's experiences as a high school teacher, and now teacher educator and education researcher, this article is motivated by concerns to do with 'good' schooling practices in connection with Indigenous education in Australia. More specifically, the paper critically considers the enduring and worrying influences of 'Aboriginal…

Engaging large first year classes in tertiary education poses a number of significant challenges, many of which have been addressed in the literature. One area that has not received the kind of attention it warrants is the context within which student learning takes place. This paper reports on the processes used to engage a large first year…