B U S I N E S S / H I G H E R E D U C A T I O NR O U N

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Professor DonaldMarkwell

Warden,Trinity College,The University of Melbourne

Improving Teaching andLearning in Universities

Guest Editor

The urgent need to enhance learning – and thereforeteaching - in Australian universities is increasinglyrecognised. In the competitive global ‘knowledgeeconomy’, the knowledge and skills of a nation’speople will significantly determine the country’swell-being. This makes the quality of learning – theacquisition by students of knowledge, skills, andalso values - in universities of the utmost importancefor the community as well as for each individualstudent.

This special issue of B-HERT NEWS draws onresearch and practical experience from authors inAustralia, Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, and theUnited States to address key issues related toimproving the quality of teaching and learning inuniversities.

Perspectives vary on such issues as the connectionbetween research and teaching, the problems andopportunities created by large classes, and muchelse. These articles reflect the benefits that can flowfor learning from well-considered use ofInformation Technology, and from the growingdiversity of student cohorts – reflecting, of course,the fact that students learn a great deal from eachother, as well as from those who teach them.

Above all, there is near-unanimity on the need forteaching to be focussed on learning outcomes, ratherthan on the teaching process itself, and especially onengaging each individual student in their own activelearning, including – especially through discussionand debate - in refining the skills of independentthinking and of clear communication which anyuniversity education should encourage. The teacheras performer, though valued by many in the past,appears now to be largely out of fashion. Is there adanger of some student-centred approaches beinginsufficiently challenging to students – supportivelychallenging, but challenging nonetheless?

Many factors shape the quality of learning. Theseinclude the aptitude and motivation of individualstudents and their own approaches to learning(including to collaborative learning), the quality anddiversity of the student body of which they are part,the curriculum they study, the calibre and strategiesof those who teach them, the size and nature of theirclasses, the ways in which learning is encouraged byassessment processes and feedback, the learningresources (such as libraries, laboratories, and

The urgent challenge of world-class university teaching and learning

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The importance of teaching and learning inuniversities has shifted from routine and somewhattoken acknowledgment in government policy to acentral place in the higher education policy agenda.A series of government initiatives over the lastdecade has incrementally raised the profile ofteaching, but much of the action was alreadyunderway within the faculties and departments. Theconjunction of a dramatic growth in studentenrolments, the introduction of new informationtechnologies, and the intense market competition forstudents in the early 1990s put universities on noticewith respect to the quality of their teaching andlearning.

Despite the tensions created by the increase in classsizes, the pervasiveness of reward systems thatfavour research over teaching, and the overalldecline in resources, our universities have managedto maintain Australia’s international reputation for

information technology) available and used, thescope for learning in the classroom to be enriched bylearning outside the classroom (including inresidential and extra-curricular settings), and thewider institutional and social context.

Much has been done, and is being done, to improveteaching and learning in Australian universities -from teacher training and other professionaldevelopment programs, to awards for outstandingteachers, to tying some of the funding of faculties ordepartments to evaluations of their teaching quality.The recent Nelson reform package and the policiesof individual universities, reflected in these pages,suggest – encouragingly - that the emphasis onenhancing teaching and learning is increasing.

Yet the decline in small-group teaching in Australianuniversities, and the diminished opportunities forindividual contact between students and academics,has made all the starker the contrast between theworld’s best practice in teaching and learning,characterized by a high degree of individualattention in a collegial learning community withinand outside the classroom, and the reality inAustralian universities, with far worse andworsening student:staff ratios. This poses an acutechallenge to all those with an interest in ensuringthat Australia has higher education fit for the 21stcentury*.

Part of the challenge is to think afresh about thecontent of what our students learn, and what needsto be done to encourage and assist them to gain thatliberal and internationally-focussed education which– far more than most realise - is necessary, no doubtoften as a prelude to more specialised professionaleducation, to be fully prepared for careers and forcitizenship in this rapidly changing world.

Several of the authors here stress the importance ofteaching practice being based on research into whatworks and what does not, and not simply onhunches and guesswork. While Australianinstitutions place considerable reliance on largely-numeric student evaluations of courses and on otheraspects of the institution, much would be gainedfrom more qualitative research into what Australianstudents find really helps them learn – qualitativeresearch of the kind reflected in the Harvard andOxford studies presented here.

Such research should form part of the genuinelyinternational conversation about university teaching

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Professor CraigMcInnis

Centre for the Study ofHigher EducationThe University of Melbourne

Emerging issues for teaching and learning in Australian universities

and learning which a number of our authorsencourage, and to which this special issue seeks tomake its own contribution – Australian universityeducators contributing to an internationalconversation, and also learning from it, for thebenefit of students.

* This argument is elaborated in Undergraduate education forthe 21st century: Australia at the crossroads, Trinity Paper No. 20, 2002, and University education: Australia’s urgent need for reform, Trinity Paper No. 27, 2003, both atwww.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/publications/papers

I am deeply grateful for the tireless work of MrGeoff Browne, my Research Assistant, and MsKathryn McGrath, my Personal Assistant, withoutwhom this issue of B-HERT NEWS would not exist.

innovation and quality in university teaching.However, the more emphatic stance on theimprovement of teaching and learning in the recentreform package has the potential for taking thequality of teaching in Australian universities to anew level.

How and with what success universities, businessand government combine to achieve a strongknowledge economy will depend in particular onsome major shifts in the way they interpret andrespond to the changing needs and expectations ofundergraduate students. This includes in particularthe design and management of student learningexperiences.

How teaching and learning arechangingMany of the changes in the way students learn atuniversity are well known although the nature andextent of their impact is not. As with almost everyaspect of society the digital revolution haspermeated universities, especially development andadoption of flexible delivery with web-basedresources and online learning. The clearestindication of change is the commonplace use oftechnologies in lecture theatres and laboratories,and the routine design of courses on the assumptionthat students will have ready access to the internet.

Students are now more likely to study in multiplesettings: in large lecture theatres, in groups oncollaborative exercises, in computer laboratorieswith two or three others in an online tutorial, orsimply working at home alone. They are less likelyto spend significant time in small group tutorials, orto have one-to-one consultation with their lecturers.On the other hand, they often have access to thepersonal home pages of their lecturers and easyaccess to comprehensive learning support services.

While students are increasingly using informationand computer-based technologies it is notnecessarily in ways that enhance their engagementwith the learning experience. The extent to whichthe management of these flexible learningexperiences using these resources is directed bychanging conceptions of the way students learn isnot clear. Likewise, our knowledge of the nature andextent of student use of technologies and its impacton their learning outcomes is still sketchy.

Academics have on the whole embraced theopportunities that new technologies provide.However, their biggest challenge has been theincreasing range of differences in studentpreparation, experiences and abilities in any givenclassroom. Meeting the needs of the students isalmost impossible without an informedunderstanding of their approaches to learning.

While there is still a lot of ground to make up whenit comes to basic principles of good teaching, thereis clear evidence that students are more likely nowthan just a decade ago to encounter academics whodemonstrate enthusiasm for their subjects. They arealso providing clear goals and objectives for theirsubjects, and telling student how they are supposedto learn in the subject. To a large extent, much ofthese measurable improvements in the basics ofgood teaching have been driven by government anduniversity accountability processes.

Enhancing teaching andlearningThe impact of technologies on the nature of studentlearning has not, however, been matched in otherrespects. It would be misleading to suggest that therehas been a wholesale shift in approaches touniversity teaching. The quality of learningexperiences for many students remains patchy atbest. Many continue to have a flawed experiencethat is fundamentally the same as for previousgenerations, and sometimes worse. The positivenews is that three broad developments are emergingand, with the right policy drivers, they are likely tohave an impact on the mainstream of learningexperiences.

First, the notion of understanding and valuing thetotal student experience has recently been revived —partly to counter the likelihood of fragmentedpatterns of learning sometimes generated by flexibledelivery as an end in itself. Since the initial surge inthe adoption of new technologies, universities havebecome aware of the significance of the socialcontext of student learning.

Engagement with learning occurs where studentsfeel they are part of a group of students andacademics committed to learning, where learningoutside the classroom is considered as important asthe timetabled and structured experience, and where

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students actively connect to the subject matter.Where once it was assumed that students wouldnaturally form natural support groups it is nowclear that the mix of part-time work, idiosyncratictimetables, and the accessibility of web-basedresources requires lecturers and course designers todesign learning experiences that encourage studentsto develop informal networks.

Second, and obviously related, is the growth instudent-centred and active learning approaches.This has been largely led by medical schools whereproblem-based learning is now widely incorporatedor in fact totally embraced in the leading schools.There is also now an emerging effort, especially inresearch-intensive universities, to connect researchto undergraduate teaching, and the integration ofpractical experience inprofessional courses ismore systematic.

Third, there is agrowing awareness ofthe importance ofe v i d e n c e - b a s e dapproaches to the or-ganisation of learningexperiences. Thatmeans universities andacademics routinelycollecting evidenceabout how much theirstudents have learnedand modifying approaches accordingly. This haspartly reinvigorated the demand to stick with firstprinciples in guiding the improvement of teachingand learning. We know from research thatundergraduate students learn best when they: workwith other students in a group whose main purposeis learning; get timely and informative feedback ontheir work; spend adequate time and focus onlearning tasks; and are able to consult withacademics about their study. These basics continueto hold true in the digital classroom.

Without evidence-based approaches to teaching andlearning, the improvement of teaching becomes ahit-and-miss exercise: and without systematicmonitoring of student performance and progressthere is little chance of institutional learning. It isparticularly easy, for example, to confuse the notionof active learning and engagement with socialactivities as an end in themselves, and to slide into

programs promoting ‘busyness’ with little effect onthe quality of learning outcomes.

What we need to doThe lack of alignment between university rewardsystems and the core activity of academics is thebiggest challenge facing government anduniversities. The fact is that most academics believethat teaching should be rewarded as much asresearch, but only a small minority consider that tobe the case in their own university, and as oneobserver noted, ‘money talks on campus aselsewhere, and the money says "do research"’.

Likewise, most academics believe that academicsought to have some form of training in teaching –

but most think it is notnecessarily for thempersonally, and up untilrecently there has beenlittle career incentive todo so. Interestingly,academics are generallynot very positive abouttheir experience oftraining and profes-sional developmentwithin their universi-ties. For some time nowmost universities havebeen running com-

pulsory induction programs for academics new touniversity teaching and, in the near future, formalinstitutional certification will become the norm.How well this impacts on the quality of the studentexperience in the future remains to be seen.

A similarly challenging task is to target resources atcreating forms of learning appropriate to the newrealities of student lives that will connect them withthe academics and with other students in a sociallearning experience. Learning communities providethe advantages of traditionally small cohesivegroups of students, moving together through theircourse as a cohort. Replicating this experience insome form is an achievable goal for all universitiesregardless of size, mission or student profile.Making effective use of ICT resources with this as astarting point would be a big step forward for manyuniversities.

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First, the notion of understanding and valuingthe total student experience has recently beenrevived — partly to counter the likelihood offragmented patterns of learning sometimesgenerated by flexible delivery as an end in itself.Since the initial surge in the adoption of newtechnologies, universities have become aware ofthe significance of the social context of studentlearning.

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Professor Richard JLight

Graduate School of Educationand John F Kennedy School ofGovernment, Harvard University

Harvard students – learning in and outside the classroom

Australia has for many years led the way. Ourexperts are highly sought after in the UK and Europewhere Australia is acknowledged as a prime sourceof research and innovative practice in teaching andlearning. There is no shortage of dissemination ofnew ideas in the last five years or so. Yet, as one whohas played an ongoing role in that process at thenational level, it is painfully obvious at seminars andworkshops around the country that a significantnumber of academics remain seriously unaffected bynational and institutional efforts to improve thequality of teaching.

What we need most right now is to develop adistinctive national approach to the improvement ofteaching and learning that ensures that thefundamentals of good teaching and learning areembedded in everyday practice. National efforts inthe form of new bureaucratic structures andprograms will amount to little, however, withoutsubstantial resources targeted directly at the qualityof the mainstream of academic practice — and notsimply on innovations. One estimate suggests thatonly 12 per cent or so of academics in the US areinfluenced by the dissemination of innovations inteaching to seriously rethink their approaches toteaching and learning. Australia is possibly wellahead, but unless national interventions have animpact ultimately on the ways in which the bulk ofstaff and students treat each other minute by minute,then change will continue to be confined to aminority of enthusiasts.

Author Photo ©Martha Stewart

Please contact the B-Hert Secretariat onbhert@bhert.com or +61 9419 8068 if you requirea hard copy of this article.

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I continue to think the Oxford Tutorial is betterthan any alternative on offer. The virtues ofindividual attention are still there in full. A youngrelative of mine has recently graduated in BiologicalScience from another prestigious university. Sheloved her time there, and enjoyed lectures byexcellent scientists. But one problem emerged at theend, which would have been inconceivable atOxford (or Cambridge). When she came to seek ajob and needed testimonials from her teachers, itproved almost impossible to find a quorum who hadthe faintest idea who she was. At Oxford she couldhave called upon half a dozen tutors, all of whomwould have been on Christian name terms with her(both ways) and all of whom would have beenintimately familiar with her work and her strengths.The Oxford Tutorial today may fall a little short ofmy rose-tinted recollections, but it is still greatlysuperior to the so-called ‘tutorial’ (actually usually aseminar or class) in any other university exceptCambridge.

I still think the Oxford one-to-one tutorial was themaking of my entire career. But if I am honest, Ithink this might have been so even if my tutors hadknown very little more than I did myself. Theimportant thing was the knowledge that my essay,when I eventually completed it, would be the objectof one hour’s undivided and serious attention fromsomebody qualified to judge it and discuss its topicwith me at least as an equal. The educational value

Professor RichardDawkins

Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, University ofOxford, and ProfessorialFellow, New College, Oxford

‘Better than any alternative’

Mr Robin Lane Fox

Fellow in Ancient HistoryNew College, Oxford

The Socratic method:teaching students to think

The Oxford Tutorial brings one or two pupils intocontact with a single teacher in their subject. Thereare off days, and occasionally a teacher or pupildoes not, or cannot, try. The off days, which arerare, are not the measure of the system. It is not justa source of information, of which there are so manysources, on and off line. It aims to teach pupilssomething else: to think.

comes not from listening to what the tutor has tosay (as if a tutorial were a private lecture), but frompreparing to write essays, from writing them, andfrom arguing about them in an unrushed sessionafterwards.

It is the feeling that one’s essay will be valued anddiscussed for a whole hour that makes the writingseem worthwhile. It gives the undergraduate aninkling of how it might feel to be the worldauthority on a subject. If anything, this valuableeducational experience might come better with aJunior Tutor than with a senior scholar who reallyis the world authority and whose prestige andreputation might seem to quell debate. Theimportant thing to retain from Oxford’s uniquetradition is the whole hour of a tutor’s attention,with nobody else present. Not only should Oxfordand Cambridge find ways of making the systemeconomically sustainable, but also the model couldwith advantage be exported to other universities.

Extracts from The Oxford Tutorial: ‘Thanks, you taught me how to think’, edited by David Palfreyman, Oxford Centre forHigher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS), 2001. Reprinted with permission.

The Oxford Tutorial

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Of course, a genuine insight into tutorial teachingcan only really be gained from speaking to thosestudents who are currently studying in Oxford,before distance, dementia or the desire for revengehas distorted their views. To this end over the1999/2000 academic year, I interviewed no fewerthan forty undergraduates to find out what theythought about the tutorials they had experienced.They were drawn from six different colleges –roughly a fifth of the total number – and from avariety of arts and science subjects. There was a mixof first-, second-, third- and fourth-year students,and a little over half of the interviewees werewomen. Their response was enthusiastic: tutorialscontinue to play a prominent part in the life of anystudent at Oxford and there is no doubt that theythink about them a great deal, how they work (andsometimes do not work) as a way of learning andteaching. Their views should be of interest to bothcritics and supporters of the system.

In the first place, it is very clear from the students’comments that there is much about tutorial teachingthat has changed, and continues to change incontemporary Oxford. For the most part, of course,the tutorial does still set the pattern for the students’week; it is still their principal point-of-contact withtheir tutors and the focus of most (if not all) of theirwritten assignments. Generally speaking it is alsostill a college-based activity, allowing students toform a close relationship with others of their cohortin the same subject area. But in other respects it hasbecome something very different. The traditionalone-on-one tutorial, between a tutor and a singlestudent who reads an essay – or presents some otherassignment – and receives (often peremptory)

feedback is undoubtedly a thing of the past. It isnow very common for students to take a course oftutorials in pairs, and many of those interviewedhad also experienced them in groups of three orfour. In the Sciences, groups can be larger still. Thisseems to have been a welcome change. Most agreethat there is far more to be gained from groupdiscussion than from the somewhat stiltedexchanges between a tutor and a single student.Generally, these larger tutorials have allowed a lessformal and more natural atmosphere to develop inwhich students find it easier to express their views.

In many cases, the role of the essay (or other writtenassignment) in the tutorial has also changed. Inmany of the arts subjects it is now common forstudents to submit their written work prior to thetutorial, so whilst it does still form the basis of thediscussion there is no time lost to a formal reading.In groups of three or four, it is often the case that thetutor will invite each student to give a briefpresentation of their views on the subject as theyhave emerged in the preparation of the essay, beforeopening up the tutorial to a wider discussion. Onceagain, most students see this as a change for thebetter. Reading aloud has long been unpopular, bothon practical – it uses up valuable time – andpedagogic grounds, tending as it does to reinforcethe division between themselves and the tutor. In aless formally structured setting where no assignmentis read in its entirety, students say they have foundthe confidence to enter fully into discussion withtheir tutors, to challenge interpretations and test outideas of their own. Perhaps the only problem fromthe students’ point of view is that it is now difficultto find an opportunity to discuss the specificstrengths and weaknesses of their own writtenwork. There is a danger that with the decline of one-on-one teaching we lose the opportunity to offer thekind of detailed, in-depth advice to an individualthat was always a distinctive feature of thetraditional tutorial.

Of course, the inner workings of a tutorial are notalways (if ever) familiar to students when they firstcome up to Oxford. Many admitted that they hadarrived with the image of an arrogant, authoritariantutor whose only aim was to expose the intellectualweakness of his students. Some said they hadbenefited from the Student Survival Kit and othersimilar advice booklets issued by a number ofcolleges, which try to de-bunk some of the more

Dr James Clark

formerly Fellow in Medieval History, BrasenoseCollege, Oxford and nowLecturer in Early Modern andNorthern European History,Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol

The Oxford tutorial:the students’ perspective

pervasive myths about student life. There are not yetenough of these manuals, however, to counteractsome of the more disturbing impressions conveyedin the media and colluded in by the moremischievous alumni. New students remain nervousabout speaking in front of their tutor, expecting thetutorial to be something similar to their originalinterview. They are also uncomfortable aboutconfronting an acknowledged expert in their field,fearing they will find themselves out of their depth.There is also a suspicion that the tutorial does serveas one, unspoken mode of assessment, even if awritten assignment is not given a formal mark. Formany though the greatest anxiety is quite simply notto know exactly what it is that their tutor expectsfrom them in each tutorial. Most of the students Ispoke to said that theirunderstanding oftutorials had grownonly slowly, largelythrough a process oftrial and error. Likemany aspects of Oxfordlife, it seems that manytutors themselves stillregard the art of thetutorial as somethingthat cannot be taughtand that understandingcomes only throughsome mystical processof self-realization. Some tutors – especially theyounger generation of college fellows – do now givetheir students guidance on how to approach andhow to make the most of their tutorials. But it seemsin most cases it is only after two or three terms, andsometimes after Mods or Prelims [first- or second-year examinations], that students say they areentirely sure about what they expect to do in, andtake away from, their tutorials.

Once they have mastered the art, there is no doubtthat most of the students do find their tutorials to bea great source of stimulation. Many draw a contrastwith their experiences at school where direct accessto tutors was limited and where class sizes andtimetable demands meant the syllabus was coveredonly superficially and at a break-neck pace. Those Iinterviewed especially appreciated the degree offocus possible in a tutorial setting, where the finerpoints of a subject, its factual content but also itsfurther implications could be painstakingly picked

apart. At the same time, students also enthuse aboutthe breadth of discussion possible in their tutorials.In comparison to lectures, or seminars that theyoften find contrived, in their weekly exchanges withtheir tutor and one or more partner they found thereis far greater scope to explore a wide range ofthemes. There is a marked preference for thosetutors who do not set any very specific agenda fordiscussion, and when spur-of-the-moment ideas canbe pursued to their logical conclusion. Some liked itbest if the tutorial became a testing-ground forideas, an opportunity to identify problems and raisequestions. Others preferred there to be a consciousdebate over one, or a cluster of issues. If thesediscussions become heated then so much the betterfrom the students’ point of view; as one of them put

it, ‘the best tutorials arelike Newsnight withthe tutor as Paxman’.Either way, it is agreedthat the advantage ofthe tutorial when it isworking like this is thatdiscussion is open, andopen-ended, and thereis every opportunity forthe students to choosethe direction or focusof it for themselves.

It would be wrong, ofcourse, to claim that current students’ opinions oftutorial teaching are unwaveringly positive. Mostmaintain that the character and quality of tutorialsvaries enormously across the University, and thatmuch may depend on a chance meeting with acharismatic tutor in a single term. There was asuspicion – in this author’s opinion, unfounded -that there is more to be gained from a tutorial led bya graduate student or a younger tutor than from amore mature, established scholar. Perhaps a moreconvincing point is that the great strength of thetutorial, that is to say the opportunity it provides forinteraction between tutor and student on a personallevel, can also on occasion serve as its greatestweakness. It does demand that the student canestablish a good (and good-natured) workingrelationship with their tutor and, for a variety ofreasons as much to do with the student as with tutorthemselves, this is not always the case. Somestudents also made the more specific criticism that,whilst tutorials are an important forum for debate

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Some liked it best if the tutorial became atesting-ground for ideas, an opportunity toidentify problems and raise questions. Otherspreferred there to be a conscious debate overone, or a cluster of issues. If these discussionsbecome heated then so much the better fromthe students’ point of view.

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Professor PaulRamsden

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)The University of Sydney

Making good teaching a highpriority again: strategies forchange

and discussion, they are poor preparation for theexaminations (whether Mods, Prelims or Schools)themselves. In their view tutorials do nothing toexpand their knowledge of their subject and yet it isthis subject knowledge that forms the basis of theexaminations. One interviewee opined: ‘tutorialshave taught me to argue…about anything, but nothow to pass the exam’.

A small minority of students also raised a furtherpoint of criticism; that the tutorial system aspracticed at Oxford is inherently gendered,favouring styles of learning that are more natural tomen than to women. In their view the emphasis ondebate and discussion in a tutorial setting placesmale students at a definite advantage given thatyoung men tend to be far more self-confident,willing to argue and, quite simply, louder than theirfemale counterparts. Certainly, it is important to register this concern and to recognize thatstudents who are naturally shy, whatever theirgender, can all too easily be marginalized in a livelytutorial discussion. But it would be dangerous tosuggest that any of these capabilities could beinherent in only one gender.

Generally, current Oxford students are enthusiasticadvocates for tutorial teaching. They value them asa prominent and stimulating part of their course.Initially, the prospect of debate and discussion withexpert tutors does seem daunting, and it is onlythrough the on-going cycle of weekly meetings thatmost have been able to master the art. But in timestudents do find them to be an engaging – evenexciting – means of developing and expanding theirunderstanding of their subject. If anything theopportunities for wide-ranging discussion anddebate have increased in recent years as the formalone-on-one structure of tutorials has been modified.The tutorial in contemporary Oxford has evolvedinto a dynamic, flexible and popular method ofteaching. Perhaps the only (slight) disappointment isthat the eccentrics so prominent in the past are nowso decidedly thin on the ground.

Over the last ten years, Australian universities haveapplied a more enterprising approach to their corebusiness of generating excellent graduates. As aresult, courses are more relevant. Generic attributesare embedded in many curricula. Innovations haveflourished. Graduates are more satisfied.Accountability for teaching quality has soared. Thedays when universities tolerated poor teachingbehaviour and showed contempt for students havegone forever.

In difficult circumstances, our universities in recenttimes have punched well above their weight. On anyusual measure of performance, the Australianuniversity teaching industry has been a story ofachievement.

Much remains to be done. A combination of under-funding, restrictions on competitiveness, and a one-size-fits-all view of what a university should looklike have squeezed the room for better teaching.There is still teaching that is substandard. There arestill lecturers who are unrecognised for theirexcellence. There are still heads and deans whoseskills in managing academics for high qualityteaching are deficient and who consequently limitthe performance of their staff. A new spirit ofevidence-based teaching practice, built on thefindings of research into university learning, hasonly begun to take hold against a sea of prejudice,hunches, opinions and guesswork.

Progress has not been helped by those who wouldimpose further regulation and uniformity on analready tightly fettered sector. Denying universitiesthe opportunity to offer diverse experiences tostudents is a recipe for mediocre instruction,

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disheartened faculty and a set of lowest commondenominator graduate skills.

Why should we bother about improving teaching?Mainly because good university teaching producesgraduates who are more useful in the community. Itmakes people delight in embracing change. Itinspires, it creates a vision of the future, and itequips them for a life of learning and service. Thebest teaching aims to stimulate students to greatermental effort under the intellectual stimulus of beingpart of a group of very able learners. These qualitiesare especially salient in research-intensiveuniversities, and they go a long way to explainingwhy the graduates of our leading institutions are soattractive to employers. These graduates know a lotof detailed content; they can learn new knowledgequickly; they can think for themselves.

In A.N. Whitehead’s words when he opened theHarvard Business School, the university impartsknowledge, but it imparts it imaginatively. AsWhitehead realised, it is precisely the attribute ofacquiring knowledge imaginatively that makesuniversities and their graduates so valuable tobusiness and commerce.

To provide space for universities to pursue goodteaching free from trivial regulation, we must acceptthat its support should reflect the mission of eachuniversity. The needs of students and staff at a smallregional university with little research atinternational standard will be quite different fromthose in a large research-led institution. We mustalso recognise that we need better internal systemsfor managing the quality of university teaching. Inparticular, this implies practical methods forevaluating teaching quality, genuine reward andrecognition, carefully targeted support forimproving teaching, and strong leadership all theway from the CEO to the coordinator of a course.

In appraising and rewarding good universityteaching, it is not enough to provide teachingawards and training courses for individualacademics. The old methods of running optionalstaff development workshops and advising lecturerson technique are simply not powerful enough tomeet the challenge. The experience at Sydney hasbeen that improving teaching quality requiresmultiple levels of intervention (individual academic,course, school, faculty). Resolute management,explicit policies and a clear vision are needed tomake step changes in teaching quality.

At Sydney, these initiatives haveincluded:

• Required fundamental training in teaching forall new academics

• New promotions policies that recogniseleadership and scholarship in teaching

• Rigorous, peer-reviewed audits of teaching andlearning performance

• Teaching awards that require the exercise of anevidence-based, professional approach toteaching as well as basic competence

• Performance-based funding of teaching,deploying approximately $4.5m annually toreward good practice

• Financial rewards to academics for publicationsand scholarship in university teaching

• A $1m teaching improvement fund to address recommendations for development identified in reviews and a $4m teaching equipment fund to improve infrastructure

• Strategic investment in e-learning and graduate attributes development

• Large increases in the number of academics studying for formal qualifications in university teaching

• Formal benchmarking of teaching quality and academic quality assurance with leading international research universities

• Mandatory annual surveys of the student experience of courses and facilities, linked to funding and Academic Board Reviews

In the four years since we started to put thesestrategies in place, we have seen demand for Sydneyundergraduate places increase substantially relativeto our competitors. Simultaneously, our studentshave reported significant improvements in theirlevels of satisfaction. Teaching is once again a highpriority in Australia’s first university.

How can we improve university teaching across thewhole system, and produce the kind of graduatesfrom every university that Australia needs to becompetitive on world markets?

The proposed National Institute for Learning andTeaching in Higher Education, one of the moreimaginative ideas in the Nelson reform package,may provide a solution. A visionary development, ithas the potential to bring a coherent approach to

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For the last fifteen years, my colleagues and I havebeen exploring the thinking and practices of highlysuccessful college and university teachers. We soughtto identify and study instructors who have had asustained, substantial, and positive influence on theway students think, act, and feel. We identified morethan sixty professors who have experiencedexceptional success in fostering remarkable studentlearning, interviewed them and their students,observed them teach, reviewed their students’ workand subsequent careers, studied course materials,

videotaped classes, studied those recordings, anddrew our conclusions (Ken Bain, What the BestCollege Teachers Do. Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 2004).

Anyone who expects a simple list of do’s and don’twill be terribly disappointed with our study and itsconclusions. One can’t teach well by the numbersanymore than one can expect to become a greatartist by painting in that fashion. Excellence inteaching requires deep thought and often profoundand subtle changes in the way we think about thenature of both teaching and learning.

We discovered two types of qualities–what we calledRembrandt’s brush strokes and Rembrandt’sinsights–that seemed to account for the success theywere having. To be a Dutch Master, one must learnRembrandt’s brush strokes, but that necessarycondition is still insufficient. One must also developRembrandt’s insights. Similarly, great teachers mustmaster a variety of techniques–brush strokes–butthey must also develop important insights into thenature of teaching and learning.

Two brush strokes appeared most frequently in theteachers we studied: The ability to talk well and thecapacity to stimulate a conversation. While both ofthose abilities–with a variety of specific techniquestoo numerous to discuss here–made a significantdifference in creating a strong learning environment,neither could carry the day. They worked becausethey emerged amidst complex and profoundconceptions of both teaching and human learning.

The best teachers conceived of teaching as anythingthey might do to foster sustained and substantialchanges in the way students think, act, or feel,without doing them any major harm. While thatmay sound like a natural way of thinking aboutteaching, it isn’t the way many college and universityeducators understand what it means to teach.Instead, conventional teachers are likely to viewtheir responsibility in the classroom as simply aperformance, something they do to students. In thatview, they can teach well even if students neverlearn. In contrast, our subjects thought that theydidn’t teach unless their students did learn. Thatseemingly simple yet complex distinction had a deepinfluence on everything they did.

Even more profound, the best teachers haddeveloped notions of what it means to learn in theirrespective disciplines and of how and why human

Professor Ken Bain

Professor of History andDirector, Center for TeachingExcellenceNew York University

What do the best teachers do?

improving learning and teaching in highereducation.

It will be critically important for the Institute to beinclusive, recognising diversity in the universitysystem and different models of good teaching. Itmust be ready to challenge some articles of faith,such as the idea that all academics in all universitiesmust be world-class researchers to be good teachers.

The Institute will need to work with the academicgrain rather than across it, avoiding a regulatoryand bureaucratic approach and involving disciplinesand professional associations from the start.Remembering the experience at the University ofSydney, it should emphasise benchmarkinginternational standards and vigorously promotegood practice in the management of evidence-baseduniversity teaching.

The National Institute represents an opportunity notto be missed to consolidate Australia’s recentperformance in improving university teaching.Properly handled, it could make Australia a worldleader in the business of producing graduates for anuncertain tomorrow.

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beings do learn. They had asked themselves whatthey wanted their students to be able to dointellectually, emotionally, physically, and socially asa result of taking their courses, and they haddeveloped elaborate and constantly emerginganswers to that inquiry. Furthermore, they hadengaged their students in that same intellectualdiscussion, asking them to think about their ownthinking and how they developed both intellectuallyand emotionally as they learned. To some degree thiswas an epistemological discussion about the natureof knowing within a particular discipline, but it wasalso an exploration of how people learn and changeas they do so.

As we probed our subjects’ thinking about suchmatters, we discovered ideas that were remarkablysimilar to the conceptsthat emerged in recentdecades from theresearch and theoreticalliterature on humanlearning and develop-ment. At first, wethought that the bestteachers may dosomething that most ofus never undertake,actually read thescholarship on learningand motivation andthink about its implications for their teaching.

In fact, we discovered that they were no more likelyto explore that literature than were their lesssuccessful colleagues, yet they had developed ideasand attitudes that have won considerable supportfrom the research on teaching and learning and havestrong theoretical foundations. Because they wereunusually reflective, they had used their experienceswith students to develop sophisticated notions aboutwhat it means to learn and about how they couldbest foster someone else’s learning. Some of thatthinking centered around their individualdisciplines, but much of it cut across traditionaldivisions of study and offered insights into howpeople develop intellectually and emotionally. Theyfashioned ideas about what it means to become anexpert or think critically, how to motivate studentseffectively, how they could create stimulatinglearning environments, and how they could bestassess their students’ work, among other important

notions. They came to understand their students,both collectively and individually.

They then used those rich insights to create highlyeffective techniques and classes, constantly changingand shaping their offerings to meet the individualneeds of their students. As one of them said, ‘Youdon’t teach a class. You teach a student.’ In general,they tried to build what we came to call naturalcritical learning environments.

To achieve that end, they were constantly learningnew things about themselves, their subjects, andtheir students. None of them believed that they wereborn with all of the abilities and insights they neededto become effective educators. They had towork at it.

To benefit from theirexpertise, we will haveto work at it also. Wecan begin by exploringthe major ideas abouthuman learning andmotivation that appearboth in the researchand theoretical litera-ture and in thethinking of outstand-ing teachers (in short,we must do something

most of our subjects didn’t do: read the literature onlearning and teaching). We need an internationaldisciplinary and multi-disciplinary conversation thatexplores the meaning of learning, the research andtheoretical findings on how people learn, theimplications of those findings for our practices withstudents, and how we and our students can bestunderstand the nature and progress of theirlearning. The insights of highly effective teacherscan point the way. They can suggest some tentativeconclusions and plenty of questions we need toexplore.

In that conversation, we can finally put to rest thetraditional dichotomy between teaching andresearch that so often paralyzed higher education inthe twentieth century. We can begin to think aboutwhat it means to create a learning universityconcerned with the learning of both faculty(research) and students (teaching) and the ways inwhich the learning of one can benefit the other. The

We can begin to think about what it means tocreate a learning university concerned with thelearning of both faculty (research) and students(teaching) and the ways in which the learning ofone can benefit the other. . . . it could mean thecreation of a community in which professors andstudents are engaged in rich intellectualconversations in a collegial environment.

Winner of the National University of Singapore’sOutstanding Educator Award for 2001-2002.

There are only four types of professors: they makestudents sleep, sad, angry or hungry for more.

Many professors have the ability to bore students totears. They read from the script, regurgitatewholesale from standard textbooks, monotonouslygo through fact after fact, stare at the board as ifthere were no audience, and talk in a language thatonly their pets can understand. They never musterenough courage to face the mirror and see how theyteach. They never learn.

Some professors try to teach well. In fact, some eventry too hard, but the communication line does notwork - there is no signal, mere noise. You do givethem ‘A’ for effort. When they are stuck in RouteOne, they open up Route Two. They attendworkshops and pick up tips and hints. They careabout students´ feedback. The sad truth is, at theend of the day, there is just no rapport with the class.Students give them consolation marks but no more.How far can sympathy carry us in life?

Teaching and research are intellectuallycomplementary, but in the real world, they oftenseem to be in conflict. How many times have youheard students complain that their professors careeverything about research but nothing aboutteaching? All academics are paid to teach but do youknow that many are happy to do research for free?You see professors glow and roar about theirresearch ideas, but do they show the sameexcitement about new ideas in teaching? They spendday and night writing research papers and grantproposals, but would they burn midnight oil todevelop a creative course for their students?

Professor T.S.Andy Hor

Department of ChemistryNational University ofSingapore

Education with a big Elearning university might mean that studentsparticipate in the research of their professors, or thatthey engage in their own course of discovery. Butmore broadly it could mean the creation of acommunity in which professors and students areengaged in rich intellectual conversations in acollegial environment. It could be reflective of anattitude about students and their worth, arecognition that efforts to foster learning in otherscan stimulate our own greater understanding, acommitment on the part of the faculty to buildingand sustaining a community of learners. At its core,such a community could be defined by engagement,by commitment of faculty and students to sustainingthe community and its conversations.

How do we create such a learning community? Wesaw major elements of it emerging in the classroomsand other places where our subjects worked withstudents. Their experiences can inform our efforts,but we can’t just bottle their wisdom or proceduresand drink it for breakfast. We have to develop ourown understanding and invent the methods that willwork best for our students. We must become bothroutine experts in which we know all the bestpractices, and adaptive ones in which we recognize(and value) both the necessity and opportunity forinvention.

Institutions can play a major role in fostering theconversations necessary for those inventions toemerge. Some major universities are alreadybeginning to do so with conferences on advancinguniversity learning. My school, New YorkUniversity, is planning such a program. For the lastsix years, Northwestern University has sponsored athree-day program on our study, featuring some ofthe teachers we researched. In 2004, NYU and theSearle Center at Northwestern will hold a similarprogram (see www.nyu.edu/cte/bestteachers.html).But more institutions must sponsor such gatherings.The disciplinary organizations must also join thateffort. We must recognize both the ethical andintellectual reasons for doing so. It is inherentlyselfish to concentrate only on the learning of facultymembers and ignore obligations to the developmentof our students, but it also impractical. We cannotlong sustain an intellectual community that pits onegeneration’s learning against the advancementof all others.

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The Academic Board of the University of Melbournelast year adopted an inspiring document outliningthe principles underpinning the University’s teachingand learning objectives. Nine Principles GuidingTeaching and Learning in the University ofMelbourne is a statement of the hallmarks of goodteaching in a research-led university.

The Nine Principles are:

1. An atmosphere of intellectual excitement

2. An intensive research culture permeating all teaching and learning activities

3. A vibrant and embracing social context

4. An international and culturally diverse curriculum and learning community

5. Explicit concern and support for individual development

6. Clear academic expectations and standards

7. Learning cycles of experimentation, feedback and assessment

8. Premium quality learning resources and technologies

9. An adaptive curriculum

As the authors Richard James and GabrielleBaldwin, from the University’s Centre for the Studyof Higher Education, explain, ‘these principlesreflect the balance of evidence in the researchliterature on the conditions under which studentlearning thrives. Each principle has a direct bearingon the quality of students’ intellectual developmentand their overall experience of university life.’

The first four principles relate to the broadintellectual environment of the University while theremaining five describe specific components of theteaching and learning experience. Each principle isdirectly relevant to students’ experience of universitylife, regardless of whether they are undergraduate,postgraduate coursework or postgraduate researchstudents.

The University is committed to providing anexcellent campus-based education and to thecentrality of teacher-student interaction in thisincreasingly technological era. If the notion of acampus as an exciting place for students and theirteachers is to survive, however, the teacher-studentrelationship needs regular re-thinking and re-emphasizing.

Our teaching and learning programs, underpinnedby these nine principles, are designed to developdistinctive attributes in our graduates. As we know,students develop a range of generic skills along withthe knowledge base they acquire through theiruniversity courses. Enabling them to recognize andhone these skills is, however, both a challenge and a

Professor Peter McPhee

Deputy Vice-Chancellor(Academic)The University of Melbourne

Nine principles to guideteaching and learning

Students are angry, angry that they pay school feesto be taught by these professors. If you were them,you would be too.

The other professors are those that you wish to beon your payroll. They see students beyond students,classroom beyond classroom and teaching beyondteaching. Effective teaching must be driven byeffective learning. Without going into the students’thoughts, one can never understand the learningprocess, let alone teach. Understanding theweakness in learning is often the key to the strengthin one’s teaching. The boundary of classroom isdefined by the professor. Good professors are notlimited by the physical boundary because they bringthe world into their classroom. Learning becomes anexperience of life. Learning with the world at yourfeet is what learning is about. Teaching withouteducation at heart is eating without tasting. Thegreat professors engage students not only in theirthoughts but also their intellectual development.They inspire students to actively seek knowledge,setting them onto the rewarding path of life-longself-learning. They produce great scholars who are‘learned’, not simply ‘educated’. This engagement isthe key in education; it is this process that makeseducation begin with a big E.

pressing need. Broad generic skills - such as criticalthinking, a capacity for independent learning,leadership and related personal skills - do notnecessarily spring to mind when students reflect onwhat they have gained from their years of study.

We know from course experience questionnairesthat students feel they receive a good education atMelbourne - but not all of them identify the broadpersonal aptitudes they develop through theirstudent experiences and campus life. The process ofarticulating these skills to students is an importantchallenge - students should know that they arelearning about not just the French Revolution orVictorian flora, important though this knowledge is,but also gaining an education in a wider sense.

The Nine Principles is a living document that reflectsthe balance of evidence in the research literatureaccording to which student learning is enrichedwhen informed by their teachers’ research. Thesecond of the Nine Principles is to create ‘Anintensive research culture permeating all teachingand learning activities’. Research-based teachingoccurs when teaching is enriched by the teacher’sown original research, so that not only does thecontent draw upon the teacher’s research in thatarea, but students are also exposed to the teacher’sresearch experiences and approaches.

The ‘teaching-research nexus’ should, however, be aricher one than an incorporation of our researchinto what we teach. It was addressed in the annualMenzies Oration, delivered by the Vice-Chancellorof McGill University, Dr Bernard Shapiro, inOctober last year. Dr Shapiro defined the properfunction of the ‘teaching-research nexus’ asembedding research values throughout theuniversity, and in particular in developing studentswho are ‘intellectually and morally autonomous’.Effective research-based teaching therefore developshigh-order graduate attributes valuable to theindividual, employers and the wider community. Italso fosters intellectual curiosity and creativity andensures that Australia has available to it the nextgeneration of students excited by, and dedicated to,research.

Dr Shapiro expressed concern that undergraduatescommonly have too little contact with theiruniversity’s most eminent researchers, challengingresearch-intensive universities to find ways to createsuch contact.

Another specific challenge shared by all Australianuniversities is that of effective teaching andassessment of very large classes. Total studentenrolments have grown by 36 per cent acrossAustralia over the last ten years; however, staffnumbers have generally remained steady or declinedat almost all Australian universities. Between 1993and 2000, national student:staff ratios haveincreased from about 15:1 to 19:1. Increases instudent:staff ratios obviously impinge directly uponthe staff time available for consultation with andgiving feedback to each student, the core of qualityteaching and learning.

Large classes are not necessarily an impediment toeffective teaching, but they do require imaginativestrategies. In recent years, some of the recipients ofour teaching awards - such as Nilss Olekalns inEconomics and Commerce, and Doreen Thomas inEngineering - have demonstrated how it is possiblein classes with many hundreds of students to engagethem effectively and to develop forms of assessmentwhich are ‘individualized’ despite class sizes.

Among the most important activities of theAcademic Board at Melbourne this year is aUniversity-wide review of assessment and gradingpractices and how these relate to the quality ofstudent learning. It will build on the excellent reportby the Centre for the Study of Higher Education forthe Australian Universities Teaching Committee.Entitled Assessing Learning in AustralianUniversities, this report is available electronically at:http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/docs/AssessingLearning

Our review of assessment is considering whether allsubject or course descriptions should address howspecific attributes are developed by particularassessment tasks. Well-chosen types of assessmentnot only provide useful feedback to students on theiracquisition of knowledge: they also develop thegeneric skills and attributes we believe our graduatesshould have.

Nine Principles Guiding Teaching and Learning inthe University of Melbourne: the framework for afirst-class teaching and learning environment isavailable at: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/pdfs/9principles.pdf

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Large classes are a fact of life on many college anduniversity campuses worldwide. Faced withenormous challenges, such as decreased fundingfrom governmental sectors, increased criticismabout the quality of student learning, increasedpressure of accountability, and increased studentenrolments, higher education institutions strive tofind creative ways to meet the learning needs ofstudents in large classes. At the University of Texasat Austin, the institution with the largest singlecampus student body in the United States (52,000+),faculty teach over 7,000 courses annually, and morethan 650 of those classes contain 100 or morestudents. It is the rare professor who remainsundaunted when facing 100, 200, or even 500students in a classroom. Large classes are often thegateway courses to students’ major fields of study.Two years ago, we garnered some 34 authors forour 2002 edited book, Engaging Large Classes:Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty. Weassumed that there are conflicting ideas on how toteach large classes. We learned that all thecontributors promote innovative student learning inlarge classes across disciplines. The message fromour book is clear. Teaching large classes posesnumerous, yet surmountable challenges! As DougAndrews, Assistant Dean of the Marshall School of

Business at the University of Southern Californiasays, ‘A large class may be any class where its sizerequires you to think about the efficacy andefficiency of your traditional teaching style.’Conversations with faculty, administrators,students, and parents uncovered some basicassumptions about learning in large classes. Thecontributors from our book clearly demonstrate thatthese commonly held beliefs are myths.

Myth 1:Large Classes Are Ineffective ForStudent Engagement

Emily Hoover, Professor of Horticulture at theUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities says, ‘I’veobserved that students are spectators who strugglewith apathy, inattention, poor attendance,discomfort with approaching the instructor, failureto prepare for class, and failure to takeresponsibility in learning when large classes aretaught passively.’ Breaking down student passivityinvolves a myriad of teaching strategies including,but not limited to, problem-based case studies,think-pair-share activities, role-play, simulations,discussion software, evocative multimedia,associational brainstorming, hypothetical or ‘hypo’cases, team learning, and academic controversies.Many professors find it an asset to ‘share theenterprise’ by melding their educational philosophywith their teaching methodology.

Myth 2:It Is Impossible To Build Rapport InLarge Classes

An overwhelming theme discussed by large classinstructors is their relationships with students todecrease anonymity. An instructor needs to select ‘aget to know the students method’ compatible withlarge class enrolments and with their own teachinggoals, philosophy, and style. Choosing not to engagewith students is not an alternative. Laurie Jaeger andDeborah Kochevar, Professors of VeterinaryMedicine at Texas A&M University, work to‘develop a professional bond’ with students. Otherprofessors use classroom space to their advantage bymaking sure that they are assigned to a room that isconducive to active learning. Rapport is builtthrough humour, asking students for feedback ontheir learning, effective listening skills, use oficebreakers on the first day of class, and developingattitudes and behaviours that demonstrate concern

Dr Christine A Stanley

Assistant Dean of Faculties Associate Professor,Dept of EducationalAdministraton and HumanResource Development,Texas A&M University

Engaging students in large classes: challenging some of the learning myths

Dr M Erin Porter

Senior Lecturer,Dept of Management Science& Information Systems McCombs School of BusinessThe University of Texas,Austin

for learning. Through learning activities thatrespect the value of student social and culturaldifferences, instructors are able to create and sustainexcitement for learning in large classes.

Myth 3:Anybody Can Teach A Large Class

Effective teaching and learning in large classes ishard work. The faculty who teach large classes arechosen carefully for teaching excellence, supportedby their departments, and rewarded for theircontribution and motivation. They develop, reflecton, and refine their teaching skills. In the May 9,2003 cover story issue of The Chronicle of HigherEducation, on ‘The best teaching doesn’t alwayshappen around a seminar table’, Richard Halgin,Professor of Psychology at the University ofMassachusetts, Amherst, indicates, ‘I don’t wantthem to come to class for tests. I want to make themwant to come to class by making the classinteresting.’ Halgin creates a ‘teaching team’comprised of staff such as experienced graduate andundergraduate teaching assistants. Working togetheron course design and management, he is able tomaximize the learning experience for students in theclassroom. Often the most effective instructors oflarge classes have a well-deserved reputation andformidable talent with large audiences; this is oftencalled ‘star quality’.

Myth 4:It Is Easy To Manage A Large Class

Many instructors agree that one of the mostimmediate differences in teaching a large classversus a small one is the planning and the time thatcourse preparation requires. Decisions aboutcontext, course design, evaluation of studentlearning outcomes, grading, learning resources,assignments, and classroom decorum are magnifiedwhen preparing to teach and manage a large class.Instructional methodology changes incrementally insize from 100 to 250 to 500 students. StevenTomlinson, Lecturer in Finance at the University ofTexas, Austin, emphasizes the importance of‘naming the truth in the room’. ‘I asked each studentto look around. This course is more than aneconomics class. It’s a management challenge. Lookat you: 200 people – diverse people, representing avariety of interests, a wide range of skills, and a hostof competing objectives.’ Classroom managementand civility can be enhanced by developing whatLinda Nilson at Clemson University terms a ‘socialengineering’ approach to planning which is (1) the

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decision-making process involved to bring out thebest performance in people, and (2) the systems inplace to encourage and reward such behaviours.Through the development of clear expectations andpositive learning outcomes, instructors and studentsare able to demonstrate a sense of achievement inteaching and learning.

Conclusion

A key question that prompted research on class sizein the early twentieth century (Edmondson &Mulder, 1924) which still remains in the minds ofmany stakeholders in the new millennium is, ‘Doesan increase in class size lead to a loss of quality ofeducation?’ This question is even more important ascollege and university finances change on a regularbasis. While results of earlier research areconflicting, there is evidence that the variablesinvolved in teaching large classes are complex andthey are affected by numerous instructionaldimensions (Wulff, Nyquist, & Abbott, 1987).More recent research (Gilbert, 1995) reveals thatclass size is not the major determining factor ofsuccessful learning or teaching. We have found fromexperience and observation of large classes that it istime to refocus research on what the instructor doesin the classroom to engage student learning.

References

Bartlett, T. (2003, May 9). ‘Big, not bad: The bestteaching does not always happen around a seminartable.’ Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A12-A14.

Edmondson, J. B., & Mulder, F. J. (1924). ‘Size of aclass as a factor in university instruction.’ Journal ofEducational Research, 9, 1-12.

Gilbert, S. (1995, Winter). Quality education: Doesclass size matter? CSSHE Professional Profile, 14,pp. 1-6. Association of Universities and Colleges ofCanada.

Stanley, C. A., & Porter, M. E. (2002). (Eds.).Engaging large classes: Strategies and techniques forcollege faculty. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishers.

Wulff, D., Nyquist, N., & Abbott, R. D. (1987,Winter). ‘Students’ perceptions of large classes’ (pps.17-31) in M. Weimer (Ed.), Teaching large classeswell. New Directions for Teaching and Learning,No. 32. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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Joint winner of the Prime Minister’s Award forAustralian University Teacher of the Year, 2002.

Good university teaching and good business practicehave much in common. Both are based on areflective ‘plan, do and review’ continuous, qualityimprovement cycle. Both have identifiablephilosophies and strategies focused on outcomes. Inbrief, there’s no point teaching unless learning takesplace, just as there’s no point producing goods thatnobody wants to buy. Both are shaped by politicaland social contexts. Finally, both contribute topresent and future social capital. At this pointresemblance ends because the contribution ofeducation to Australian society cannot beunderstood solely in terms of profit, loss andconsumerism. Personal development, civil societyand the social good are the qualitative outcomes ofthe Australian education system.

Some of my students have joked that they would liketo wear a badge that declares, ‘We are notcustomers’. In these few words they challenge thewhole notion of education as a product that isconsumed. Rather, they see education as a caringprofession. When I became joint winner of the PrimeMinister’s Award for Australian University Teacherof the Year, I received a letter of congratulation froma student I had taught in the 1970s. She wrote,‘Lynne, I’ve been wondering what it is that madeyou such a good teacher for me. I remember you asvery supportive and affirming of me as an individualand as a young student teacher. That relationshipyou fostered affirmed me and supported my learningand my growth’. Not one memorable teachingstrategy in sight! What was remembered was the

Associate ProfessorLynne Hunt

Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning)Faculty of Computing, Healthand ScienceEdith Cowan University

What makes good university teaching?

quality of the teaching and learning relationship. Irecently invited a group of tertiary teachers to reflecton their school life and their tertiary studies toidentify stories that illustrated good teaching. To mysurprise not one teaching strategy was revealed.Instead, the stories were about teachers who caredfor their students. They recalled charismatic teacherswith passion for their subjects who had influencedtheir lives. But this is nebulous fuzzy stuff to offer inreply to the question posed for this article: ‘Whatmakes good university teaching?’

The aim of good university teaching is gooduniversity learning. It’s a small shift in thinking tostop talking about good university teaching and tostart talking about good university learning, but ithas significant implications for how universitycurricula and teaching strategies are developed. Ifyou want to learn to ride a bike you have to get onit and ride. In other words, quality learning islearning by doing. It is also problem-centred andexperiential learning. These related approaches allrequire the active involvement of students inconstructing their own knowledge. As aconsequence, good university teachers are the ‘guideon the side’, not the ‘sage on the stage’. Goodlecturers resource students and facilitate the skillsneeded to complete their assignments - the vehiclefor student learning.

New technologies offer increased scope for studentsto collaborate online in the preparation ofassignments that engage them with the globalcommunity. These opportunities haveinternationalized university curricula in a mannersuited to the workplace demands of the future. Theyhave also decreased the tyranny of distance byproviding improved access to tertiary studies forrural and remote students. This has implications forequity that I responded to in a program called ClickAround ECU – a competition to develop a web-siteabout university life. This transition to universitycompetition aims to introduce tertiary studies tostudents with little experience of post-secondaryeducation.

The transition out of university into employment isequally important. For this reason I havecontributed to the development of work-basedlearning at Edith Cowan University to preparestudents for the workforce. Work-based learning

“Certainly everyday observation shows that theaverage college course produces no visibleaugmentation in the intellectual equipment andcapacity of the student. Not long ago, in fact, anactual demonstration in Pennsylvania demonstratedthat students often regress so much during their fouryears that the average senior is less intelligent, by allknown tests, than the average freshman…” (H. L.Mencken, Minority Report: H. L. Mencken’snotebooks, New York: Knopf, 1956, p. 98).

Mencken’s hyperbole, while amusing, points tosome quite serious issues. To what extent doesuniversity education in fact augment ‘the intellectualequipment and capacity of the student’? And howcan education be improved in this regard?

One good way to approach these issues is to focuson particular ‘success stories’ – that is, clear cases ofuniversity education being transformed so as togreatly accelerate gains. What such case studies lackin generality, they make up for in the richness andauthenticity of the insights they provide.

One success case, at the University of Melbourne, isCritical Thinking, a first-year one-semester subjectin the Faculty of Arts. This subject aims quitedeliberately to augment intellectual equipment and

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Associate ProfessorTim van Gelder

Department of PhilosophyThe University of Melbourne

Dr Richard Wraith

Director, Learning Innovation CentreTrinity CollegeThe University of Melbourne

Developing critical thinkingskills through InformationTechnology

develops partnerships between universities andindustry by providing student placements of varyinglength, known in the UK as thick or thin sandwichdegrees. Some British universities have gone furtherand are experimenting with self-negotiated degreesat both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Thetitle of such programs – for example, Learning atWork – indicates that these degrees are individuallytailored to the needs of people in the workforce.When companies arrange with universities for theinclusion of in-house training in industry-universitydegree programs, these are known as corporatedegrees.

Whatever the style of a degree and whatever themode of learning, the principle of good universityteaching is based on one clear principle: it isimportant to be learner-centred. It’s about designingthe learning experience to accord with students’needs. That could mean developing work-basedlearning programs, creating interactive, onlinelearning opportunities, or simply responding tostudents’ work and family commitments by offeringweekend workshops or by teaching in a five-dayblock, when students might be able to take leavefrom work. The important point is to start from theposition of the student. This is recognized andvalued by students.

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capacities – specifically, the ‘capacity forindependent critical thought [and] rational inquiry’,which appears high on the University’s official list ofthe Attributes of a Melbourne Graduate.

There is considerable evidence, in the researchliterature, for the disturbing proposition thatconventional critical thinking instruction makeslittle difference to critical thinking skills. We foundthis when we first studied Critical Thinking atMelbourne; testing before and after revealedvirtually no difference in average ability. Over anumber of years, a group known as the ReasonProject has developed a new software-based way ofteaching the subject. Students now reliably showsubstantial gains; over a twelve-week semester, theircore skills improve about as much as is normallyfound over an entire undergraduate education.Over 100 institutions in Australia andinternationally now use part or all of the newapproach.

Key factors underpinning theReason Project’s successinclude:Testing for Gains

Every time Critical Thinking was taught during theredevelopment process, students were tested beforeand after the semester with at least one, andsometimes more than one, objective test of criticalthinking skills. This produced detailed, reliableinformation about the extent of gains, informationwhich drove the next round of development.Without this information, it would have beenimpossible to say, with any rigour and objectivity,how effective the method was and whether a newversion was more effective than its predecessor.

International Comparisons

Gains were continually compared with those foundin studies of other critical thinking subjects fromaround the world. This was one way to assess thesignificance of gains of the magnitude achieved inCritical Thinking – that is, to judge whether theywere negligible, typical, or outstanding. It alsoprovided a strong incentive to continue improvingthe course. A healthy competitive instinct led to the

goal of developing an approach which is, provably,much superior to any other.

Evidence-Based Design

Throughout, development of the Reason Approachwas guided by evidence from education research andcognitive science. Current theories of cognitive skillacquisition shaped the overall design of the Reasonapproach; considerations from cognitive psychologyand even the philosophy of mind influenced thedesign of the educational software, which wasfurther refined in numerous rounds of usabilitytesting.

Combining Research and Teaching

In the Reason Project, there was an unusually closerelationship between research and teaching. Thelead instructor’s main research interest was criticalthinking instruction in general, and the effectivenessof his own teaching in particular. In a virtuouscycle, this research fed directly into the design of theReason Approach, which was itself a test bed andstimulus for further research. The melding ofresearch and teaching overcame the tension oftenexperienced by university instructors, in whichresearch and teaching activities are largely separateand time spent on one comes at the expense of theother.

Information Technology

The Reason Approach makes heavy use of the latestinformation technologies. These include, of course,generic technologies of the sort now commonlydeployed throughout higher education, such aspersonal computers, word processors and theinternet. However they also included technologiescustom-built for, or particularly well-suited for, thenew mode of learning. The Reason Projectdeveloped a new software package, Reason!Able,which guides and scaffolds students through thecomplex processes involved in general reasoning andargument. Reason!Able-based instruction tookplace in a special ‘Multimedia Classroom’ equippedwith technologies such as a touch-sensitiveinteractive whiteboard and high-resolution monitorsembedded in learning ‘pods’. The instructionaldesign, the software, and the physical facilitiesconstituted a harmonious whole, an integratedenvironment in which students and instructorsbecame immersed in the business of learning.

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Institutional support

The Reason Project benefited from especially highlevels of institutional support. The University ofMelbourne and the Australian Research Councilpartially funded development of the software, andthe Trinity College Learning Innovation Centreprovided work and teaching space and support forReason Project activities.

In each of the respects just described, and in anumber of others, Critical Thinking was quiteunlike a typical university subject. This suggeststhat there is plenty of room for improvement in thetypical undergraduate university subject,improvement which may come from adoptingsimilar strategies.

The redesign of Critical Thinking has been governedby certain broad philosophical assumptions. Themost central of these is that instructional designought to be based, as far as possible, on scientificevidence and rigorous empirical evaluation. Theidea is that the same sorts of techniques which havebeen so successful elsewhere in science, including inparticular in medical science, ought to work ineducation as well. In Critical Thinking thisapproach succeeded, at least as measured in its ownterms.

Many educational theorists reject the broadapproach as ill-conceived or even ideologicallyillegitimate. Such theorists, by rejecting scientificmethods, render themselves unable to rigorouslydemonstrate that their own teaching methods andinnovations are substantial improvements over whatwent before. In this sense, they are part of theproblem, not part of the solution. Scientificthinking is just critical thinking, systematised andinstitutionalised. If we hope to substantiallyimprove education, such critical thinking is the bestfoundation.

Dr Keith Trigwell

Institute for the Advancementof University LearningUniversity of Oxford

Student-focused versusteacher-focused teaching:the key to improvement

Many of the academic staff teaching in universitiesare there because of the high quality of the teachingthey experienced as students. But there are few ofthem, not to mention the students who did not go onto become academics, who would say that universityteaching cannot be improved. The question is howcan it be improved?

Most immediate responses to this question suggestthat teachers give clearer explanations, are availablefor consultation with students, make it clear whatstudents need to do, and so on. The focus here is onthe teacher and the strategies the teacher uses. Mostuniversity teaching improvement literature is alsoaddressed at teaching strategies. The conceptions-based research described below suggests that inmany cases this may not be sufficient to improveteaching.

Teaching involves much more than what happens ina classroom or online: It is oriented towards, and isrelated to, high quality student learning, andincludes planning, compatibility with the context,content knowledge, being a learner, and above all, away of thinking about teaching and learning.Improving teaching involves all these elements.

A model of teaching which relates the centralposition of the student in teaching to these elementsis shown below as a section through a set ofconcentric spheres (equivalent to a section throughan onion) representing aspects of theteaching/learning situation. The student is at thecentre or core, with the layer closest to the student(and the one experienced most strongly) being whatthe teacher does (teachers’ strategies). The nextlayers involve planning and thinking, and all are

surrounded by the outer layer which is the particularteaching/learning context. In this model all fiveelements are logically aligned – teacher thinkinginforms planning and strategy selection, and thecontext influencesteacher thinking.

Recent highereducation researchstudies suggest thatthere is a way ofconceiving of universityteaching which is morestrongly associatedwith higher qualitystudent learning thanother ways of thinking(Prosser and Trigwell,1999, Understanding Learning and Teaching, OpenUniversity Press: Buckingham).

Some teachers keep more of a focus on theirstudents in their planning and their activities. Theseteachers tend to be teaching students who describe ahigher quality approach to their learning. Teachersadopting this approach see their role as helping theirstudents develop and change their conceptions orworld views. As a result of this thinking their focusis on the bigger picture – an overview of the topic orhow the components of the information are relatedto each other, and on students’ prior knowledge –what students bring to the situation. Their planningand teaching methods are in alignment with thisconception.

This thinking is in contrast to the teachers whowork with a view where the focus is on what they doas teachers, or on the detail – individual concepts inthe syllabus or textbook, or the teachers’ ownknowledge structure – without acknowledgment ofwhat students may bring to the situation or

experience in the situation. They see their role astransmitting information based upon thatknowledge to their students.

With respect to the concept of alignment, a teacherwho holds the formerconception is morelikely to adopt anapproach which hasthe student as the focusof activities. It mattersmore to this teacherwhat the student isdoing and learning andexperiencing than whatthe teacher is doing orcovering. This teacheris one who encourages

self directed learning, who makes time (in formal‘teaching’ time) for students to interact and todiscuss the problems they encounter, who assesses toreveal transformed knowledge (not only to judgeand rank students), who provokes debate (and raisesand addresses the taken-for-granted issues), whouses a lot of ‘lecture’ time to question students’ideas, and to develop a ‘conversation’ with students.

These strategies may differ from those used by ateacher with a teacher-focused approach, but this isnot always so. For example two teachers can use thesame strategy (say, buzz groups during a lecture). Itis the teachers’ intention (aligned with theirconception) that constitutes the main difference inthis case. Using a student-focused approach, ateacher may see the buzz groups as a means bywhich students can compare their understandings ofthe lecture topic, and give feedback to the teacher onthat understanding. In a teacher-focused approach,the teacher may see buzz groups as a way of givingher or himself a break from talking and students abreak from note-taking in a one-hour lecture. The

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Teaching involves much more than what happens

in a classroom or online: It is oriented towards,

and is related to, high quality student learning,

and includes planning, compatibility with the

context, content knowledge, being a learner, and

above all, a way of thinking about teaching and

learning. Improving teaching involves all these

elements.

A MODEL OF UNIVERSITYTEACHING

* Includes teachers’ knowledge,conceptions and reflections

25

From Our Universities: Backing Australia’s Future,Commonwealth of Australia, May 2003, pp. 28-29.Reprinted with permission.

The strength of the Australian higher educationsector will depend on fostering an environment ofexcellence in the full range of activities undertakenby institutions. Although teaching is recognised as acore activity of all higher education institutions,current Commonwealth funding, internal staffpromotion practices and institutional prestige tendto reinforce the importance of research performancerather than teaching performance.

Rewards and incentives for excellence in learningand teaching will promote the overall quality of thesector. Excellence in learning and teaching will beplaced alongside the delivery of research excellenceas a valued contribution to Australia’s knowledgesystems. There is no intention for any Australianuniversity to become ‘teaching-only’. An increasedfocus on learning and teaching will foster diversityand help to ensure the ongoing high quality of theAustralian higher education sector.

National Institute for Learning andTeaching in Higher Education

A National Institute for Learning and Teaching inHigher Education will be established to provide anational focus for the enhancement of learning andteaching in Australian higher education institutionsand will be a flagship for acknowledging excellencein learning and teaching. The Institute’sresponsibilities will include:

� management of a competitive grants scheme forinnovation in learning and teaching;

Dr BrendanNelson

Federal Minister forEducation,Science and Training

Federal Government reformsto promote excellence inteaching and learning

differences in student learning, from the use of thesame strategy, may be substantial.

Most teaching improvement literature is focused onteaching strategies, such as buzz groups or onlinediscussion groups, or collections of teaching tips.The conceptions-based research described abovesuggests that unless the teacher is using a student-focused conception, the emphasis on strategies maybe misplaced. Take, for example, advice about usingan online teaching strategy for a component of acourse. From a student-focused conception a teachermight ask the following two questions: (a) is thisstrategy likely to achieve the student learning aims?and (b) what type of learning is likely to beencouraged using this strategy? From a teacher-focused perspective, the questions raised are morelikely to include (a) is this strategy likely to be themost efficient method of dissemination? and (b)what amount of coverage is likely to be achievedusing this approach?

It is this variation in thinking that must be at thecentre of teaching improvements. It needs to focusbeyond how well the teacher is conducting teachingactivities, and how well those activities are receivedby students. There is a need to consider the natureof those activities and how they align with variationin student learning. Activities that are student-focused are more likely to align with higher qualityoutcomes of learning.

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� liaison with the sector about options for articulating and monitoring academic standards;improvement of assessment practices throughout the sector, including investigation ofthe feasibility of a national portfolio assessmentscheme;

� facilitation of benchmarking of effective teaching and learning processes at national andinternational levels;

� development of mechanisms for the dissemination of good practice and professionaldevelopment in learning and teaching;

� management of a programme for international experts in learning and teaching to visit Australian institutions and the development of reciprocal relationships with international jurisdictions;

� coordination of a revised version of the Australian Awards for University Teaching, including the Awards presentation event; and

� secretariat functions to the Australian Universities Teaching Committee.

The Institute will be overseen by the AustralianUniversities Teaching Committee (AUTC) and berun by professional staff with expertise in learningand teaching in higher education. The AUTC willcontinue to advise the Minister on the allocation,management and outcomes of any grants schemeand activities administered through the Institute,including the revised Australian Awards forUniversity Teaching.

The Institute will receive $21.9 million per yearfrom 2006, which will comprise $2.5 million foradministration and $19.4 million for grants andother activities. Funding will be allocated fromexisting programme funds to establish the Institutein 2004.

New Australian Awards for UniversityTeaching

The Australian Awards for University Teaching willbe enhanced to heighten the status of teaching andsupport the centrality of teaching in institutionalmissions.

The number of rewards to teachers whodemonstrate excellence in teaching will be increased,

at a cost of $2.7 million per year from 2006. Thenew annual awards will include:

� 210 awards valued at $10,000 each;

� 40 awards valued at $25,000 each; and

� The Prime Minister’s award for ‘Teacher of the Year’ valued at $50,000.

Teachers in public higher education institutions willbe eligible for these awards.

Learning and Teaching PerformanceFund

A Learning and Teaching Performance Fund of$54.7 million in 2006, increasing to $83.8 million in2007 will be established to reward those institutionsthat best demonstrate excellence in learning andteaching. The Fund signals the Commonwealth’scommitment to learning and teaching and willsupport institutions that choose to focus onexcellence in learning and teaching forundergraduates.

Learning and Teaching Performance Fundallocations will be determined in two stages. In thefirst stage, institutions will be required todemonstrate a strong strategic commitment tolearning and teaching. Institutions must have acurrent institutional learning and teaching plan orstrategy. Evidence of systematic support forprofessional development in learning and teachingfor sessional and full-time academic staff must beprovided. Evidence must be provided [that]probation and promotion practices and policies thatinclude effectiveness as a teacher as a criterion forthose academics with a teaching load, are in place.There should also be systematic student evaluationof teaching and subjects that informs probation andpromotion decisions for academic positions wherethe academic has a teaching load or expectation of ateaching load. These strategies, practices, policiesand student evaluation results would be madepublicly available on an institution’s website.

Once eligibility for funds is established through thefirst stage, institutional performance in learning andteaching will be assessed using a range of indicators,including student progress and graduateemployment outcomes. These indicators will bedeveloped in negotiation with the sector.

27

universities adapted University A's criteria, withminor modifications, whilst University D developedits criteria through discussions amongst senior staff.The universities did not involve staff in debates orconsult them about what 'teaching excellence' mightbe. No-one debated the appropriateness of usingAustralian criteria to measure excellence in Chineseacademics.

During the interviews, the 19 nominees/winners didnot remember the criteria. I found that individualsconstructed themselves as excellent teachers usinglanguage that was much richer than theiruniversity's criteria (See Table 1). They drew onmetaphors to describe themselves as a writer, acoach, an artist or, in one case, a Chinese operasinger. This teacher loved singing (teaching) somuch, was so deeply involved with her music(subject), that she was totally unaware of theaudience (students), until the applause (studentevaluation). This goes against the student-centredapproach. A number discussed teaching only interms of their personal needs and for them, teachingis a totally satisfying experience. In contrast, othersled interesting lives outside the university and werepassionate about sport, art, literature, travel or theirfamilies. I came to believe that a passion for

* These are the headings of each section. Each section has a list of competencies which extends the criterion in the heading. There are up to 4 pages of criteria and competencies.

A

� High level of competency in a wide range of teaching skills

� Commitment to integrity of subject matter

� Deep appreciation of the importance of various stakeholders’ needs and concerns in the teaching/learning process

� Genuine interest in the continual improvement of teaching and development of teachinginnovations

� Constructive contribution to curriculum developmentof programmes/courses

B

� High level of competence in a wide range of teaching skills

� Commitment to integrity of subject matter

� Concern for student learning

� Genuine interest in the continual improvement of teaching and development of teaching innovations

� Contribution for formulation/administration of courses/modules

C

� Excellence in wide range of teaching skills

� Commitment to the advancement of the discipline

� Deep appreciation of the importance of various stakeholders’ needs and concerns in the teaching/learning process

� Genuine interest in the continual improvementof teaching and the development of teaching innovations

� Constructive contribution to the curriculum development/administration of courses/modules

D

� Preparation (of courses and classes)

� Implementation in different settings

� Assessment of outcomes

� Innovation� Research and

Development� Leadership � University wide

activities/recognition� Beyond the university:

visiting teacher at otheruniversity

The Criteria* for Teaching Excellence.Teachers provide evidence in their (generally) 15 page teaching portfolio,under the following headings:

My recent study (Robinson 2003) focussed on thesystems for selecting the winners of teachingexcellence awards in four Hong Kong universitiesand I interviewed nominees, winners, selection panelmembers and administrators. In this article, Idiscuss the criteria for teaching excellence, and thenominees’/winners’ reaction to it.

The criteria for excellence originated from theAustralian National University, and were adaptedby the Quality Assurance Committee of University Awhen awards were first instigated there. Two

Dr CatherineRobinson

Centre for the Advancementof University TeachingThe University of Hong Kong

Awards for TeachingExcellence:what the teachers say

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Joint winner of the Prime Minister’s Award forAustralian University Teacher of the Year, 2002.

Higher Education in Australia is once again facing aperiod of reform, this time addressing buzzwordcriteria of quality, equity, diversity andsustainability. Since winning a national teachingaward in 2002, I have been asked to comment onvarious aspects of academic life. I have had todeliberate on my teaching practices and provideobjective measures of their quality. In this paper, I make subjective comment on teaching quality frommy experiences as a preclinical scientist teachingfoundational biology and vocational microbiology.Obviously, my musings are biased and should not betaken as consensus opinion.

Both teachers and students yearn for qualityeducational experiences and outcomes. But whatconstitutes quality? How do we measure it? Whatcriteria and standards apply? Who measures it?What are the consequences for good or badperformance? Will good quality be rewarded? Willpoor quality be punished or remediated? Addressingthese concerns will be difficult because governments,unions, university management and academic staffhave disparate views on many work issues, such asacademic freedom, independence, money, resources,workloads, appraisal mechanisms, performancecriteria, etc.

Most universities have been progressive in theirpursuit of teaching and learning quality and haveestablished annual award schemes recognizingindividual and team performance. Academicsnominated by students and peers are asked to reflect

Associate ProfessorPeter O’Donoghue

Department of Microbiologyand ParasitologyThe University of Queensland

Teaching quality matters inhigher education:instigating cultural change

something - anything - was what prompted studentsto nominate them.

Excellent teachers, I was assured, are never confinedto the classroom or the university, and they continueto influence students for the rest of their lives. Thesure sign of an excellent teacher is that students keepin touch long after they graduate. The formerstudents of one teacher regularly invite him to lunchto sound him out on their ideas even though they arenow successful professionals. Teachers used theseinformal ways to keep abreast of changes in theirprofessions.

Some teachers tried to develop 'wisdom' groundedin past experiences that they had critically reflectedupon, that could not be written about in a portfoliowithout being trivialised. Insights developed overmany years, through lying awake at night andworrying; they were not developed throughdescribing yesterday's critical incident in a journal.Many discussed their role as modern Chineseuniversity teachers, caught between the east/westdivide, who were required to move fluently betweenEnglish and Cantonese. They wanted to develop asense of morality and appreciation of the uniqueculture of Hong Kong in their students, even thoughthis was not specified in the courses they taught.

Currently, there are no procedures in the case-studyuniversities for challenging or changing criteria,except to sharpen up the wording. If universitiesvalue teaching excellence, perhaps they can invitestaff to contribute their ideas. As teachers talked tome, they engaged enthusiastically with the conceptof 'teaching excellence'. As they searched for wordsto describe the complexities of what they thoughtand how they turned thoughts into actions, theyactively formed and reformed their concept duringthe interview. Teaching excellence is not out therewaiting to be discovered. It is brought to lifethrough intellectual engagement with the conceptand is enacted through the physical bodies of thosewho engage in practices they believe can bedescribed (at least by them) as excellent.

Reference

Robinson CG (2003), A Foucauldian Perspective onthe Construction of Excellence in UniversityTeaching, unpublished PhD dissertation, TheUniversity of Hong Kong.

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on their teaching and learning activities inaccordance with prescribed criteria. For example,the Australian Awards for University Teachingrequire nominees to address the following tenselection criteria.

Teaching

Teaching activities vary considerably andpractitioners know they involve as much planningand preparation as presentation and delivery.Scientists tend to be dominated by course contentrather than teaching and learning processes.However, stating fact after fact in didactic lecturesdoes not guarantee student learning orunderstanding. Tertiary teachers need to be flexible

and experiment with different techniques to getstudents to learn. Every educational experience isunique so teaching must be tailored to facilitateappropriate student outcomes. We mustaccommodate the changing face of science. Biologyhas progressed over two decades from organismal tocellular to molecular biology. Technologicaladvances have allowed us to go from studying wholeanimals or plants to examining their tissues and cellsand now their proteins and DNA. Teachers need tobe utilitarian, sometimes being generalists knowingwhole programs, and sometimes specialists withexpertise in defined fields. It is advantageous if theyare involved in curriculum development to ensureappropriate coverage, align objectives withoutcomes, and promote best practice. They mustconsult with all stakeholders, including employers,industry, government, schools, fellow teachers andstudents themselves.

While teachers are dominated by content, studentsare certainly dominated by assessment. ‘What’sexaminable’ dictates their study habits, learning andunderstanding. Assessment practices are undergoingconsiderable change. Criterion-referencedassessment is becoming widely adopted wherestudents address defined criteria with performancestandards. Universities and society have come tovalue generic graduate attributes (such as criticalthinking, problem-solving, communication) as muchas specific knowledge. Science students are generallynot well versed in educational paradigms so it isimportant they realize teaching is not whimsical butrather an orchestrated series of interactions designedfor learning in cognitive, affective and psychomotordomains. We need to translate educational jargonand explain teaching and learning models so theyunderstand and appreciate program and coursedesign. When students understand educationalprocesses, they participate and become activelearners rather than passive recipients. Engagementempowers students, facilitates self-determination,engenders ownership, generates enthusiasm andstimulates feedback on process, content anddelivery.

Research

Academics are expected to engage in scholarlyresearch. Indeed, two key parameters used toquantify research are grants-in and papers-out.Objective measures of quality (such as journal

1. Interest and enthusiasm for teaching andpromoting student learning

2. Ability to arouse curiosity, stimulateindependent learning and develop criticalthought

3. Ability to organize course material and topresent it cogently and imaginatively

4. Command of subject matter, includingincorporation of recent developments

5. Innovation in design and delivery of contentand course materials

6. Participation in effective and sympatheticguidance and advising of students

7. Provision of appropriate assessment, includingworthwhile feedback

8. Ability to assist students from equity groups toparticipate and achieve success

9. Professional and systematic approach toteaching development

10. Participation in professional activities andresearch related to teaching

These criteria give an indication of the breadth ofteaching and learning activities expected frommodern academics. However, academics do morethan just teach. Universities are professed to fulfilthree main functions: to act as living repositories ofaccumulated knowledge; to pass on this knowledgeto the younger generation; and to add to the sumtotal of knowledge through research. Indeed,academic staff are appraised on the basis of theirteaching, research and service, although it is oftendifficult to discriminate between these activities.

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impact factors and citation indices) are now beingused to complement traditional subjective peerreview processes used by granting agencies,publishing houses and employers. The fundingclimate currently favours collaborative programswith the formal creation of industry linkages,research networks, centres and institutes. Despitethe logistic advantages of collaborative groups, thework itself is still done by individuals who must bevalued above all else. Regrettably, people do notalways interact profitably with anecdotal evidencesuggesting that only one in four collaborations willbe fruitful. Network approaches to science usuallyinvolve workload intensification throughmanagement by committee which requires greaterbureaucratic support. Most scientists noweffectively perform their own secretarial duties as aconsequence of the IT revolution. When was the lasttime you had the time to sit back and engage increative thought, lateral thinking, deductive logic,hypothesis formulation?

Into this dynamic environment, we apprenticeresearch students for careers as scientists. Trainingpostgraduate students requires superiorcommunication and negotiation skills so they canundergo professional and social induction in aprogressive and cooperative environment. This isgenerally not the experience of many researchstudents who suffer too much or receive too littlesupervision. Peer support networks and counsellingservices are required to assist students with manyissues, such as project development, resourceutilization, multi-skilling, interdisciplinary liaisonand personal development. I believe research shouldalso be embedded in all undergraduate teachingprograms to provide vocational context, technicalskills, problem-based and self-directed learningexperiences.

Service

Academic staff are asked to provide service to theiruniversities, profession and community. Committeemembership is part of our corporate culture and weserve on a variety of departmental, school, facultyand university committees. We also serve tochampion our disciplines through involvement withprofessional societies and journals, advising industryand government, and contributing to publiceducation campaigns. There are a growing numberof science promotion programs operating at local,

state and national levels, such as Science in the Puband Science meets Parliament. Participation in thesediverse service roles supports teaching throughcurriculum review, resource provision, disciplinerecognition and community awareness.

Context

Public perceptions of science and technology arechanging and scientists play a greater role in societythan ever before. I therefore believe science is besttaught in context. Teachers must show courserelevance to contemporary science and technology,vocations, employers and communities. Thisinvolves changing teaching paradigms to bettermodel workplace practices. Increasingly, studentsare involved in problem-based or case-basedlearning, industry projects and even industryplacement. Such changes involve reverting to small-group teaching, contextual learning and fosteringSDL (self-directed learning) through a process ofDSL (directed self-learning). We have experienced ashift from transmissivism models (where teacherstransmit content to students) to social constructivistmodels (where students construct meaning). In asociety where universities are at the apex of theeducation pyramid, I find it paradoxical thatteaching models are better understood by primaryand secondary school teachers than by mostuniversity teachers. School teachers must haveessential qualifications to teach, these days being adual degree (B.Ed. slowly replacing Dip.Ed. in mostStates). However, in most university faculties,tertiary teachers do not need any formalqualifications to teach. It seems to me that we aredenying academics the most elementary tools of thetrade. How do we then aspire to quality?

Quality assessment

Most universities conduct annual staff appraisalswhich are generally linked to applications for salaryincrements, continuing appointment/tenure orpromotion. Staff summarize their activities andachievements to line managers who make subjectivejudgments of their scope, quality and impact.Various teaching parameters are considered, theforemost being feedback from students usingvarious instruments of evaluation. However, studentperceptions of teaching do not always mean thateffective learning has occurred. We need to developbetter mechanisms to assess teaching quality other

31

than to run popularity contests. Courses mustundergo periodic review to remain contemporaryand relevant, clients need to be identified andconsulted, graduate satisfaction and careeroutcomes need to be determined, and managersneed realistic (not idealistic) data to allocateresources. Academics do not experience equity inteaching workloads as research and servicecommitments vary between staff. Many facultiesconduct teaching quality audits where a percentageof their budget depends on successfully addressingcertain criteria. National and internationalbenchmarking programs now consider qualityoutcomes besides quantitative data on graduandsand grants. All universities are not equal and theycater to different markets. Some have elected toremain comprehensive while others have specialized.Quality issues will therefore differ.

Irrespective, our objective should be to improveteaching quality. Unfortunately, training programsare resisted and often resented by staff, particularlythose most in need. Without being unduly critical,many academics are apathetic or antagonistic toteaching reform. Many are paternalistic and alwaysknow best. Any attempt to change allegedlyimpinges on their expertise or academic freedom.Many are insular and simply lack vocationalexperience. Collegiality is not widespread as manystaff consider others as political or economic rivals.This is not meant as a gloomy scenario but rather arealistic assessment of many workplaces. Petty issuesdominate. How do you then institute change?

Quality improvement

Methods to improve quality must progress beyondreward and punishment. There are various local andnational awards for teaching excellence. While suchrewards acknowledge effort and performance, theyare regarded as elitist without tangible benefits foreveryone. Punishment and penalties are counter-productive and are contrary to workplaceagreements except where breaches of law andprofessional conduct occur. Withholding incrementsand erecting barriers to career advancement areinappropriate and open to abuse by hostilemanagers. There is a growing trend to abolishtenure and introduce contractual employment whererenewed appointment is dependent on satisfactoryperformance. The problem arises as to whatconstitutes satisfactory performance and whodecides?

Surely it is better to support staff and instigatecultural change where teaching is valued. Manyuniversities promise to ‘spend the money as it’searned’ but not all teaching income finds it wayback to teaching activities. Universities do fund staffdevelopment initiatives involving action learningprojects, teaching induction programs, IT andmultimedia training, and teaching and learningconferences. Various mechanisms for providinginformal training are being explored including theconcepts of mentoring junior staff, peer feedbackthrough buddy systems, forming teaching teams andrunning specialty workshops. The major problemencountered has been poor staff motivation andparticipation. Voluntary attendance does not accessthe staff who would benefit most from trainingprograms. Perhaps it is time we seriously considerformal qualifications for tertiary teachers at thecertificate, diploma or degree level. Quality couldonly improve as we teach teachers how to teach.Because many academic staff are recruited primarilyon the basis of their research endeavours, theywould profit by undertaking training in educationaltheory and practice. Sadly, most suggestions toinstitutionalize teacher training are met with alarmand undue concerns about workloads and restrictivework practices. Improving teaching quality willnecessitate workplace reform.

Change is normal and inevitable. It should not beregarded as onerous or insoluble. We employvarious educational models within ourundergraduate and postgraduate courses; why notgive the same consideration to continuing educationfor academics? For example, I frequently use theSACK model to differentiate between educationaldomains (Skills, Attitudes, Concepts andKnowledge). We need to provide academics withessential teaching skills, change their attitudes fromteacher-centred to student-centred to facilitate deeprather than rote learning, establish fundamentaleducational conceptions and provide knowledge ofbest practice. Small-group teaching in context doeslead to better learning outcomes but it does haveheavy resource implications in terms of staffnumbers and class rooms. Governments anduniversities must be progressive to afford andfacilitate quality higher education in Australia if weare ever to meet our own ‘smart-state’ and ‘clever-country’ rhetoric. This begs the question, what pricequality?

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The most vital challenge facing those who teach inthe 21st century is the impact of cultural diversity.As never before, cultural diversity has becomecharacteristic of the general community, theworkplace, and both student and staff universitycommunities. Cultural diversity has a profoundimpact on education, and responding positively tothis impact is fundamental to good 21st centuryeducation.

The term ‘cultural diversity’ embraces differences ofethnicity, religion, language, and heritage;differences in national origin (including both thedichotomy between ‘local’ and ‘overseas’ students,and the manifold diversities within such studentgroups); and differences in experience (such asprevious education). The result is that studentsapproach education from different starting points.Yet, passionate and rigorous teaching must havedefined goals, and thus the diverse body of studentsshould share in an educational process aiming at acommon outcome.

Two key challenges for educators in the modernuniversity are:

� to generate a meaningful exchange of ideas andinterrelationships between students of different cultural backgrounds;

� to meet the educational needs of all students effectively, and achieve unified goals, regardlessof cultural background.

The exchange of ideas

The exchange of ideas and debate of competingviewpoints is fundamental to the academic process.These goals take on a new meaning in the context of

Dr Tamar Lewit

Lecturer in Charge of History of Ideas Trinity College FoundationStudiesTrinity CollegeThe University of Melbourne

Educating in a global village:the challenge of culturaldiversity

cultural diversity. The range of viewpoints to bedebated is expanded. In world terms, the necessityto encounter, understand and reconcile competingcultural viewpoints becomes ever more pressing. Itcould be argued that inter-cultural communication isthe new literacy: in education, work, and life, it is nolonger sufficient merely to read and write ideas fromwithin one’s own culture, or merely to surf thewaves of international information-gathering,without ever plunging into deeper waters.

The University of Melbourne (1998) identifiesinternationalization, including ‘genuinelyinternational student communities’, as an overridingimperative of contemporary education. When does adiverse student group become a ‘genuinelyinternational’ community? The concept of‘international’ implies not only that students aredrawn from different countries, but that the formand content of education itself in some way engageswith the world beyond Australia. The concept ofcommunity entails not merely the sharing of spaceand facilities, but intercommunication, trust,interdependence, and mutual support. A genuinecommunity will also face gritty encounters withconflict and dissent, and work towards theirresolution. It is the responsibility of educators togenerate such exchanges within the educationalcontext.

Effectively meeting the educationalneeds of all students

In a recent survey of international students at theUniversity of Melbourne, more than 40% ofrespondents agreed that ‘at the start, I had difficultyadjusting to the styles of teaching/learning inAustralia’ and ‘assessment procedures wereconfusing at first’. Nearly 30% felt unsure about‘what was expected of me’ (James and Devlin 2001:2-3). Unquestionably, students who come from adifferent educational background (for example,overseas) will face, in addition to the normaltransition issues of students moving into higherstudy, a variety of linguistic, personal, andintellectual challenges. Above all, they face newacademic expectations.

Particular styles and expectations of education havedeep historical and cultural roots. These may affectAustralian students from diverse culturalbackgrounds as well as international students(although the effect is greatly modified by a

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common educational experience). The educationaltradition dominant in Australian universities, drawnfrom Europe, has its origin in a 2500 year-oldSocratic tradition. Scepticism is seen as the heart ofintellectual enquiry. Dialectic and criticalquestioning are regarded as essential to learning. Yetsuch public challenges to received wisdom,embodied in the teacher and the written text, arefrowned upon in other cultural traditions. TheConfucian tradition dominant among many worldcommunities encompasses a very different attitudeto education, in which humility and respect areviewed as essential precursors to learning (see box).

The later historical evolution of Europe led to theformulation of a powerful tradition of rebellion,anti-authoritarianism, and individualism. In othercultural traditions, humility, cooperation and socialharmony are given higher value. Direct or publicdisagreement may be seen as destructive (see box).

Such differences of cultural tradition result indifferent expectations of education, teachers and

students. The Australian university tradition isfundamentally individualistic: the ‘ideal’ student isindependent, critical, and able to express anindividual viewpoint and engage in vigorous verbaldebate. Students are expected to be active andcontrol their own learning. If they do notunderstand, it is seen as their responsibility to seekhelp and information. Other cultural traditions mayenvisage the ‘ideal’ student as attentive, diligent andrespectful. In such traditions, a good student doesnot speak without invitation or contradict others. Itis even disrespectful to ask questions as it impliesthat the teacher does not know best how to teach.The students of the Trinity College FoundationStudies Program have, since 1990, come from over50 countries. Our experience with these studentssuggests that in spite of globalisation and therenovation of many overseas education systems,such deep cultural values still influence modernstudents’ experiences, expectations and skills (seebox).

If teaching staff are effectively to meet theeducational needs of all students in a culturallydiverse environment, it is imperative that they arethemselves ‘inter-cultural’ in outlook. They musthave some knowledge and sensitive understandingof different traditions, a willingness to genuinelyengage with students of diverse backgrounds, andthe required skills and approach to achieveeducational goals with all students, regardless ofbackground. Teaching staff, as well as students,need to develop self-awareness and openness todifferent assumptions and values.

Diverse cultural traditions:

‘… citizens… may never permit themselves to beoppressed and degraded by tyranny… The right ofmanifesting ideas and opinions… may not beforbidden’ (Declaration of the Rights of Man andCitizen, France 1793)

‘human liberty… comprises… absolute freedom ofopinion and sentiment on all subjects… the peculiarevil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that itis robbing the human race, posterity as well as theexisting generation…’ (J.S. Mill, On Liberty)

‘Respect each other and refrain from disputes; youshould not, like water and oil, repel each other, butshould, like milk and water, mingle together’(Buddha, Parinibbana-sutta).

Diverse cultural traditions:

‘Man’s wisdom is worth little or nothing… I goabout searching and testing every man whom Ithink is wise… and whenever I find that he is notwise, I point that out to him…’ (Plato, The Apologyof Socrates)

‘You should not become disobedient but remainreverent. You should not complain, even if in doingso you wear yourself out’ . . . ‘speak with self-effacing diffidence’ (Confucius, Analects)

Trinity College Foundation Studies studentcomments:

‘[In Australia], questioning things that your teacherssay is not disrespectful’ (anonymous evaluation)

‘In my home country, I was taught to obey myteacher, listen to their ideas and just follow’(Indonesian student)

‘[In Australian tutorials] we have group discussionswhere we can express our opinions freely, instead ofwaiting for the teacher to ask. It is very differentfrom Indonesia. We even sit in circles in class ratherthan in rows.’ (Indonesian student)

‘Singapore is very different. I was used to teacherstalking, but not talking myself…’ (Singapore student)

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Effective teaching approaches which build commonoutcomes within a diverse student body include:

� dedicated support classes focussed on academicexpectations, providing a safe forum for questions;

� detailed written guides explaining expectations,requirements and marking criteria;

� face-to-face feedback during and after the assignment writing process;

� explicitly encouraging the asking of questions;

� a willingness to make questioning safer by offering small group and structured segments intutorials and scheduling individual consultations;

� the use of technical and formal language in preference to colloquialisms or abbreviations, asLOTE speakers find these easier to understand and to find in dictionaries;

� the thoughtful selection of examples, case studies and humorous references in order to minimise (or explain) local references and maximise international content.

Such techniques are not only vital to the success ofstudents from diverse cultural backgrounds, but areeducationally valuable to all students. Thusthoughtful teaching for cultural diversity does notmean a lowering of standards or diminution ofteaching quality but rather can benefit all equally.

More broadly, good higher education in a culturallydiverse environment should search for values whichare universal across time and cultures: both theSocratic and Confucian traditions, for example,emphasise moral and social responsibility asfundamental to true education. There has neverbeen a more urgent need for higher education toembody such universal principles.

Student adaptation or educationalchange?

The kind of teaching approaches outlined aboveassume that in seeking to achieve common goals,teaching staff need to help students to adapt to theteaching environment. A bolder approach would beto consider whether cultural diversity demands achange in the educational environment itself. Couldeducation in the 21st century be enriched, not onlyby the presence of students from diverse cultural

backgrounds, but also by a genuine exchange ofeducational ideas? A number of countries aroundthe world are currently remodelling their educationsystems on a more ‘western’ basis. We should askourselves whether the best education for a globalvillage would encompass a mutual exchange ofideas, and whether Australian universities inparticular could learn, from other traditions, toplace a higher priority on values such as diligence,humility, and the pursuit of harmony.

References

James, R. and Devlin, M. Evaluation of theinternational student experience 2000, Centre forthe Study of Higher Education and InternationalStudent Support Services, the University ofMelbourne, 2001.

The University of Melbourne, Cultural DiversityPolicy, 1998

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Recent B-HERTPublicationsAs a unique group of leaders in Australian business,professional firms, higher education and researchorganisations, the Business/Higher Education RoundTable (B-HERT) sees as part of its responsibility theneed to articulate its views on matters of importancegermane to its Mission. From time to time B-HERTissues Papers in this context – copies of which areavailable from the B-HERT Secretariat at a cost of $9.90(GST incl.) per copy.

B-HERT Paper No. 6 (February 2003) – ResearchIssues for the Service Sector, particularly forCommunity Service Professions and ExportServices.This paper attempts to define the service sector,particularly on two important areas, the communityservices sector and the export industries sector.

Position Paper No. 10 (September 2002) – The Importance of the Social Sciences toGovernmentSocial policy is concerned with a range of humanneeds and the social institutions created to meetthese needs. The social sciences cover a wide arrayof complex issues and disciplines. Governmentactivities are now centrally related to social policyand the boundaries between social, economic andscience policy are blurred. CommonwealthGovernment expenditure on social security andwelfare, health and education amounts to some65% of total expenditure and indicates theimportance and persuasiveness of social policies.The social sciences and policies are important inensuring the maintenance and functioning of astable society by attempting to provide a moreequitable distribution of wealth and income andensuring an understanding of governance andinstitutions of civil society. Universities play a keyrole in providing social science courses whicheducate graduates in a philosophy, knowledge andthe new developments of social science. The enablesgovernment agencies to access skilled socialscientists who are capable of developing andimplementing new social science policiesappropriate to meet the needs of an ever changingworld.

Position Paper No. 9 (August 2002) – Enhancingthe Learning and Employability of Graduates:The Role of Generic SkillsIn an era when various new kinds of partnershipsand relationships are developing between industryand higher education, and between the differentsectors in education, a paper on generic skills istimely.

This paper outlines the nature and scope of genericskills before discussing the reasons why they havebecome a focus of policy interest. The benefits ofpaying attention to generic skills for learning andemployability purposes are considered in relation torelevant research findings. The holism, con-textuality and relational level of generic skills as wellas the links to lifelong learning are highlighted.Examples of the incorporation of generic skills intohigher education structures and courses are alsodescribed.

There is also discussion of ways to close the‘employability’ gap.

The paper then suggests a learning framework forgeneric skills at different levels.

Finally the paper makes some recommendations inrespect of further work that would be valuable inpursuit of the agenda to enhance the learningcapability of employability of graduates.

Position Paper No. 8 (July 2002) – HigherEducation in Australia – the Global ImperativeThis paper is B-HERT’s submission to the NelsonReview of Higher Education.

B-HERT Paper No. 5 (June 2002) – THE FACTS(Higher Education in Australia – todaycompared with yesterday and the rest of theworld)A compendium of statistics on higher education.

($19.95 per copy)

B-HERT Paper No. 4 (February 2002) – TheKnowledge-Based Economy: - some Facts andFiguresAn update to B-HERT Paper No. 2 which providessome useful and interesting comparative data onAustralia’s relative global position within thecontext of the knowledge-based economy.

Position Paper No. 7 (January 2002) – GreaterInvolvement and Interaction between Industryand Higher EducationThis paper looks at the need for a more enhancedpartnership between the business community andhigher education.

Position Paper No. 6 (August 2001) – SharingAdministrative Functions at Lower CostsThis paper highlights an innovative approach toachieving savings in administrative activities.

Discussion Papers:

� How Should Diversity in the Higher Education System be Encouraged?

� The Role of Universities in the Regions(Refer B-HERT website: www.bhert.com)

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Diploma in BusinessPrinciplesWho should attend?This is a course designed to be user friendly andpractical in its content. The Diploma in BusinessPrinciples is suitable for new starters to the world ofbusiness, recent graduates (particularly but notexclusively) from non-business disciplines such aslaw, engineering, the arts or the health sciences, andsmall to medium business operators.

What is the Program?The Program has been carefully structured toaddress the most common area of activity inbusiness where, irrespective of the level at which anemployee is working, there is every likelihood thatperson will need to understand what constitutessound business practice. The list of topics covered iscomprehensive and it is difficult to dismiss any oneof them as not basic to business activity.

The subjects covered include:

➢ Financial Management – this module introducesparticipants to the principles and practice ofbasic accounting and finance. The emphasis ison accrual accounting and the transactions mostlikely to be encountered by the participants.

➢ People Management – participants areintroduced to the systems for peoplemanagement in organisations, includingrecruitment, training, and performancemanagement including coaching.

➢ Working in Teams – participants willunderstand the importance of effective teams inthe business environment of today and areintroduced to team dynamics and preferenceswithin teams.

➢ Leadership – this module provides participantswith an understanding of the similarities anddifferences between management andleadership; the need for leaders to be able tovary their style; and the challenges facing leadersin the business world.

➢ Financial Institutions and Markets – anoverview of Australian financial institutions andmarkets is provided, including the bankingsystem, stock market and associated financialmarkets. Included in this module is a session onsuperannuation.

➢ Contract Administration – this module is aimedat providing participants with a basicknowledge of contract law and the processes

associated with the efficient administration ofcontracts.

➢ Sales and Marketing – Participants willunderstand the difference between salesandmarketing and the development ofmarketing, from strategy to earning customerloyalty.

➢ Corporate Ethics and Values – issues ofcorporate ethics are considered, together withthe importance of clearly defined values increating successful corporate cultures.

➢ From Data to Knowledge – participants willunderstand the importance of knowledgemanagement as a key competitive edge intoday’s business world and the relationshipsbetween data, information and knowledge. Therole of IT as a business enabler is also dealt with.

➢ Communication – participants are introduced tothe practice of effective business com-munication, including presentation skills andmanaging meetings.

➢ Corporate Law – Participants are given anoverview of the principles of corporate law, legalstructures, and the roles and responsibilities ofBoard of Directors.

➢ Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship –this module deals with the mindsets and skillsassociated with creativity and innovation as wellas the qualities and practices associated withsuccessful entrepreneurship. Participantsconsider how to apply these mindsets and skillsin their organisation/business.

➢ Practical Taxation – participants develop a basicunderstanding of the Australian taxationsystem, including company tax, PAYG and GST.The role of the Australian Taxation Office isconsidered, including its regulatory and auditfunctions.

➢ Personal Effectiveness – participants areintroduced to techniques such as timemanagement, project planning and careerplanning to enable them to maximise theirpersonal effectiveness in the workplace. Theirrole in the delegation process is also considered,and participants are encouraged to set personaland professional goals.

➢ Workplace Health and Safety – this moduledeals with a range of issues which participantsneed to be aware of in fulfilling theirresponsibilities, including OH&S legislation,Equal Opportunities, stress management andmaintaining a balance between work and sociallife. Participants consider practical issues withintheir own workplaces.

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What is the Need?A number of research studies have been conductedin recent years relating to the attributes and qualityof graduates/new starters entering the workforce. Aconsistent theme that emerges in each study is thelack of practical business skills and the surprisinglack of understanding of day-to-day businesspractices.

The purpose of the DIPLOMA in BUSINESSPRINCIPLES is to provide to new graduates,particularly (but not exclusively) from non-businessdisciplines, others entering business for the firsttime, and small to medium business operators witha basic introduction to practical business. Newgraduates and new starters enter the workforceoften with little or no understanding of the day-to-day operation of business and face the daunting taskof learning on the job, often with embarrassing oreven serious consequences. Small to mediumbusiness operators face a similar task of ‘learning onthe go’ often diverting them from more immediatematters.

The need for this sort of program has been identifiedon a number of occasions, but little action has beentaken to address the need.

B-HERT sees this as an important educational andtraining initiative in enhancing, in a very practicaland user friendly way, the knowledge and skills ofgraduates, business operators and others enteringthe workforce for the first time.

What are the Benefits of the Program?

To the participant

To most people entering the workforce for the firsttime there are numerous aspects of business and theworkplace which are completely foreign orunknown. Their productivity is obviously adverselyaffected by this, as is their personal sense of well-being and job satisfaction. In many instances it maytake years before an employee comes across some ofthe aspects covered in these topics.

The aim of the program overall, is to providegraduates, new starters and business operators withthe basic knowledge and skills necessary for them tobe effective in the professional world of today. In aprogram of this nature, it is not possible to deal withtopics in depth. Where participants wish to pursue

topics in greater depth, we shall provide them withlinks to business schools and other providers as wellas reference material.

The benefits to participants include:➢ A convenient and quick way to acquire a wide

range of basic business skills to immediatelyenhance their performance and motivation atwork;

➢ Access to highly qualified and experiencedconsultants with whom they can discuss theirreal life issues as they make the transition fromstudy to the world of professional work;

➢ Access to leaders from their own organisation towhom they may look for advice on an on-going basis;

➢ Access to advice and material which supportstheir on-going learning, including contacts with business schools and other providers ofmanagement education and development.

To the employer/business owner

This program fast-tracks the employee to a level ofunderstanding of the way business operates whichwould otherwise take months or even years. Manylarge organisations conduct similar inductionprograms for their own employees, which areusually spread over a period of months or in somecases a couple of years. For those employers who donot have the resources or the inclination to do thetraining themselves this program provides the idealsolution at a reasonable cost. As the program isconducted out of hours the employer does not loseout on employee productivity.

Given the importance of service delivery it is nowemployee skills that can provide the differentiatingvalue between businesses. Such a program alsocomplements the change in organisational structuresand flexible work patterns that have developed overthe last decade. THE DIPLOMA in BUSINESSPRINCIPLES is a cost effective and practical way ofendorsing and supporting employee empowerment.

Course ScheduleCentres and course dates – to be advised

Course Enrolment FormContact B-HERT Secretariat at bhert@bhert.comor ph: 61 3 9419 8068or download from website: www.bhert.com

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Students In FreeEnterpriseB-HERT’s Free Enterprise Emissaries to take on theWorld’s best in Mainz

From l-r: Mr Walter Bugno - President Asia-Pacificof Campbell/Arnott’s; Jeannine Thwaite; AnthonyGoh; Ms Emma O’Connell - SIFE Australia Fellow;Vanessa Vincent; Ruth Snelleman-Smith; Mr RogerCorbett - CEO & Group MD of Woolworths;Christopher Kong; John Doumani - PresidentInternational of Campbell Soup Co; Mr Ken Ryan -Regional GM Vic/Tas of Qantas.

The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) program,which is supported by B-HERT, held its 2003National Competition at the Hilton On the Park,Melbourne over the weekend 19-20 July. From afield of 22 university teams in competition, with afurther five observer teams, students from TheUniversity of Melbourne won through for thesecond time in three years to be named as theQantas SIFE Australia National Champions.

The team of ten undergraduate students, mentoredby their SIFE Australia Fellow, Ms EmmaO’Connell, from Careers & Employment, won thefirst prize of $5,000 in cash, the Qantas TravelAward and the right to hold the WoolworthsPerpetual Shield for one year. They will travel toMainz in Germany in October to represent Australiain the Third SIFE World Cup.

In competition against teams from 30 othercountries, the SIFE UniMelb students will present aportfolio of ten projects that comprise teaching thebasics of the market economy to primary and

secondary school students, learning facilitationactivities and some ‘hands on’ business incubators.

Their efforts will be judged by panels of chief andsenior executives drawn from many of the largestmultinational corporations. Among the CEOs willbe Brambles chief executive Sir Cee Kee Chow andthe President International of Campbell Soup Co,Australia’s John Doumani.

More than 300 students, representing the 15,000world wide from 1,400 universities with SIFE clubs,will take part. In 2003 alone, it is estimated thatSIFE students’ projects have touched the lives of 3.9million individuals and gives credibility to the SIFEmotto of ‘Changing the World’.

B-HERT Meeting Dates for 2003

Please note the following date for the remainingB-HERT meeting for 2003:

Tuesday, 25 November 2003 –Sheraton Towers Southgate, Melbourne

3.00pm – 5.30pm(inclusive of Annual General Meeting),

followed by Awards dinner at which the HonPeter McGauran MP, Minister for Science,will deliver the after-dinner address and

present the Awards for OutstandingAchievement in Collaboration in Educationand Training and the Best Entrepreneurial

Educator of the Year.

“PUTTING REFORMS INTOPRACTICE”SYMPOSIUM

25 and 26 November 2003Melbourne

B-HERT is hosting a symposium where all stakeholders willhave the opportunity to influence the outcome of thehigher education reforms. 21 speakers including twosenators, the secretary of DEST, six vice-chancellors,industry related executive directors, presidents and CEOsand distinguished experts in their field will contribute to abroad and inclusive program.

More information / to register:www.bhert.com

B-HERT Secretariat: 03 9419 8068email: bhert@bhert.com

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2003 Award

for the Best Entrepreneurial Educator

of the Year

Sponsored by

To recognise the importance of education in the process of developing and nurturing entrepreneurs;and to showcase best practice in entrepreneurial education.

This award will be presented by the Hon Peter McGauran MP, Minister for Science, at a gala dinner in Melbourne on 25 November 2003,

and the winner will be featured in the next issue of B-HERT NEWS (March 2004).

2003 Awardsfor Outstanding Achievement

in Collaborationin Education and Training

Sponsored by

Australian GovernmentDepartment of Education, Science and Training

The Awards will be presented by the Hon Peter McGauran MP, Minister for Science, at a gala dinner in Melbourne on 25 November, 2003.

In the next issue of B-HERT NEWS (March 2004) there will be a full report of the winners.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

Dr Mark Toner (President)Company Director

Professor Denise Bradley AOVice-Chancellor

The University of South Australia

Professor Gavin BrownVice-Chancellor

The University of Sydney

Mr Russell CooperChief Executive Officer

SITA Environmental Solutions

Professor Kerry CoxVice-Chancellor

University of Ballarat

Professor Ruth DunkinVice-ChancellorRMIT University

Professor Helen GarnettVice Chancellor, Charles Darwin University

Mr David HindManaging Director, South Pacific

BOC Gases Australia Limited

Ms Judy HowardGeneral Manager Woolworths Academy

Woolworths Limited

Professor Michael OsborneVice-Chancellor

La Trobe University

Professor Millicent PooleVice-Chancellor

Edith Cowan University

Mr Rob StewartCompany Director

Professor Iain WallaceVice-Chancellor

Swinburne University of Technology

Executive Director:

Professor Ashley Goldsworthy, AO OBE FTSE FCIE

Assistant Executive Director: Christopher Goldsworthy

Executive Assistant: Anne Munday

MISSION STATEMENTThe purpose of the Business/Higher Education Round Table(B-HERT) is to pursue initiatives that will advance the goalsand improve the performance of both business and highereducation for the benefit of Australian society.

It is a forum where leaders of Australia’s business, researchand academic communities can examine important issues ofcommon interest, to improve the interaction betweenAustralian business and higher education institutions, and toguide the future directions of higher education.

In pursuing this mission BHERT aims to influence publicopinion and government policy on selected issues ofimportance.

B-HERT believes that a prerequisite for a more prosperousand equitable society in Australia is a more highly-educatedcommunity. In material terms it fosters economic growthand improved living standards - through improvedproductivity and competitiveness with other countries. Interms of equity, individual Australians should have theopportunity to realise their full social, cultural, political andeconomic potential.

The membership of B-HERT comprises, by invitation, thechief executives of leading Australian businesses, professionalfirms, public research organisations, the Australian NationalTraining Authority, and the vice-chancellors of Australianuniversities.

B-HERT pursues a number of activities through its WorkingGroups and active alliances with relevant organisations bothdomestically and internationally. It publishes a regularnewsletter (B-HERT NEWS), reporting on its activities andcurrent issues of concern relevant to its Mission.

Business/Higher Education Round TableA.C.N. 050 207 9421st Floor, 24 Brunswick Street

Fitzroy Vic 3065

Ph: 61 3 9419 8068

Fax: 61 3 9419 8276

Email: bhert@bhert.com

Website: www.bhert.com

ADDITIONAL COPIES OF B-HERT NEWS CAN BE OBTAINED AT A COST OF $7.70 PER COPY (GST INCL.) BYCONTACTING THE B-HERT SECRETARIAT BY PH: 61 3 9419 8068 FAX: 61 3 9419 8276 OR EMAIL: BHERT@BHERT.COM