Twenty-seven first-year nursing students, divided across six focus groups formed on the basis of their past chemistry experience, were interviewed about their chemistry experience as a component of a Health Science unit. Information related to learning and academic performance was able to be established from student conversations resulting in…

The characteristics of a spiritual direction formation program as part of a postgraduate course were compared with a range of standard higher education academic agendas of learning. The formational characteristics included acknowledgment of prior experience, cooperative community approaches to learning, teachers as partners in learning, reflective…

This article raises two inter-related issues: firstly there is a correlation between the needs of doctoral students that are strongly related to age and career stage; and secondly, because these needs differ according to their demographic, the current discourse of developing work-readiness skills of doctoral students is misplaced for the growing…

This paper presents findings from the large-scale study "Literacy Teacher Educators: Their Backgrounds, Visions, and Practices" that includes 28 literacy/English teacher educators (LTEs) from four countries. The participants were interviewed three times and shared their course outlines. Six pre-service LTEs who use a constructivist…

Nursing students have typically found the study of chemistry to be one of their major challenges in a nursing course. This mixed method study was designed to explore how prior experiences in chemistry might impact chemistry achievement during a health science unit. Nursing students (N = 101) studying chemistry as part of a health science unit were…

Effective mathematics teaching for Indigenous language speaking students needs to be based on fair expectations of both students and teachers. Concepts of "age-appropriate learning" and "school readiness" structure assessment expectations that entire cohorts of Indigenous language speaking students are unable to meet. This…

Wiki technology has been promoted as a collaborative software platform. This study investigates interactions that occur in a wiki-based collaborative learning project. The study draws on interaction literature and investigates the types of interactions with which students are engaged in wiki-based group projects, clusters that reflect online…

The Bourdieuian concept of "position-taking" is applied in this analysis of recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australian higher education. Data from institutional documents and participant interviews indicate that, within RPL policy, the universities selectively employ prevailing discourses of "quality"…

Despite pressing concerns about the need to prepare high-quality teachers and the central role of teacher educators (TEs) in this process, little is known about how TEs teach about teaching specific subject matter, and how they develop their expertise. This empirical study focuses on the specific expertise that science TEs bring into teacher…

The arts are crucial in developing our multi-sensory interpretation of culture. With the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum in the arts, there is cause to reflect on teacher education courses, and pre-service teachers' ability to deliver the new curriculum. Reflection on students' experiences in the arts may provide insight into…

This paper reports on a project that investigated the first year, online experiences of vocational education and training (VET) pathway students studying at university. It was found that, although some students embraced online learning, more than twenty percent of new VET students suffered from high levels of anxiety and frustration when learning…

The gap between young Indigenous and non-Indigenous children's capability within mathematics is widely acknowledged. This gap is conjectured to exist at all levels of schooling, including pre-school, and widens as children mature. Most of these findings are based on research relating to children's understanding of number and space. Little is known…

International students have become an important part of many universities, both through the income they provide and the diversity they bring to student populations. Studying in a foreign country can be challenging, requiring students to adapt to unfamiliar educational cultures. With the integration of online technologies into higher education,…

This paper reports on a study that explored the use of cognitively challenging tasks with low-attaining mathematics students and in particular, their teachers' attempts at scaffolding. A major finding was that responding appropriately to scaffolding opportunities was challenging for the teachers. In this paper two main factors are discussed which…

Recognition of the skills acquired through non-formal or informal learning is important for a number of reasons. Individuals gain a feeling of worth and self-confidence, which encourages them to continue to upgrade their skills and knowledge, often leading to formal qualifications and improved employment outcomes. The process of recognition of…