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Embedding the development of intercultural competence in Business Education

Project Team
Mark Freeman
Lesley Treleaven
Betty Leask (UniSA)
Prem Ramburuth (UNSW)
Lyn Simpson (QUT)

Granting Body
Carrick Institute for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - $167,826

This project is designed to identify, develop and disseminate successful teaching and learning strategies and professional development strategies for increasing the profile of intercultural learning. Sustainable capability throughout Business Faculties is emphasised by embedding these strategies in the work of academic leaders, student services managers, professional developers, academic staff and students.

The project will achieve this by incorporating a range of strategies to ensure quality outcomes and high-level strategic support for faculty implementation of those outcomes throughout Australian Business education. The Teaching and Learning Network of the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) will be invited to participate as part of the Reference Group. The four partner applicants are members already. The project will be built on an existing framework for the development of intercultural competence in Business students, teaching and student services staff, academic developers and academic leaders. Successful professional development and teaching strategies will be identified for each of these levels, adapted and embedded in a series of pilot programs. Particular attention will be paid to raising the profile of intercultural learning and competence among leaders in Business-related disciplines, notably through a series of working seminars in each state with ABDC network members and invited high-level representatives and academic developers.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • Freeman M, Sykes C, Chamberlain A, Leask B, Ramburuth P, Simpson L and Treleaven L (submitted). Developing Intercultural Competence in Australian Business Higher Education: A literature review. Journal of Managerial Psychology: Special Issue Intercultural Competence.
  • Ridings S, Simpson L, Leask B, Freeman M, Ramburuth P, Treleaven L, Sykes C and Fletcher M (submitted). ALTC Project Update: Developing Intercultural Competence. HERDSA Newsletter.
  • Freeman M, Treleaven L, Ramburuth P, Adis Tahan D, Leask B, Bridge C, Caulfield N, Simpson L, Fletcher M, Ridings S and Sykes C 2008 ?Embedding the development of intercultural competence in business higher education.? National Graduate Attribute Project meeting in Sydney, Australia, 27 October.
  • Ramburuth P, Leask B, Freeman M, Treleaven L, Simpson L, Ridings S and Sykes C 2008 ?Embedding the development of intercultural competence in business education?. The First Conference of the Diversity and Social Inclusion Consortium Melbourne, Australia, 20-21 October.
  • Leask B, Simpson L, and Ridings S 2008 ?Developing global citizens using the formal and informal curriculum.? Australian International Education Conference in Brisbane, Australia, 6-9 October. 
  • Treleaven L, Freeman M, Leask B, Ramburuth P, Ridings S, Simpson L and Sykes C 2007 'Beyond Workshops: A conceptual Framework for Embedding Development of Intercultural Competence in Business Education', HERDSA News, vol.29:3, pp. 9-11.
  • Leask B, Simpson L, Sykes C, Treleaven L, Ramburuth P and Freeman M 2007 Embedding the Development of Intercultural Communication and Learning within Business Faculties Across Australia, Australian International Education Conference in Melbourne, Australia, 9-12 October.
  • Freeman M, , Leask B, Ramburuth P, Ridings S, Simpson L, Sykes C and Treleaven L 2007 'What do you mean?' Getting down to business and embedding the development of intercultural competence, Making Learning Matter at VU: Learning Matters Symposium in Melbourne, Australia, 3-6 December.
  • Leask B, Simpson L, Sykes C, Treleaven L, Ramburuth P and Freeman M 2007 ?Embedding the Development of Intercultural Communication and Learning within Business Faculties Across Australia?, Australian International Education Conference in Melbourne, Australia, 9-12 October.
  • Sykes C, Leask B, Simpson L, Freeman M, Ramburuth P, Treleaven L and Ridings S 2007 ?Embedding the development of intercultural communication and learning within Business Faculties across Australia: A Carrick funded initiative.? Australian International Education Conference in Melbourne, Australia, 9-12 October.

Graduate attribute development, assessment and standards

Full Title: Facilitating staff and student engagement with graduate attribute development, assessment and standards in Business Faculties

Project Team
Mark Freeman
Lesley Treleaven
Tracy Taylor (UTS) Project Leader
Darrall Thompson (UTS)
Lyn Simpson (QUT)
Andrew Paltridge (QUT)
Fiona Rodhe (UQ)

Granting Body
Carrick Institute for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - $203,544

The Project's purpose is to promote and support strategic change in advancing graduate attribute development in the discipline of Business through the engagement of staff and students in graduate attribute assessment. Using existing evidence and research on assessment, the Project aims to establish new evidence through documenting knowledge management practices used to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge about graduate attributes for learning and for application in both Australian and International universities? communities of practice in the Business discipline.

The importance of graduate attributes reflects the perspective that education is a lifelong process, the increasing emphasis on the employability of graduates and the development of outcome measures as a part of continuous quality improvement, notably in this country via the Australian University Quality Agency.

A cross-faculty investigation of student workload

Project Team
Mark Freeman
Lesley Treleaven
Amani Bell
Kellie Morrison

Granting Body
University of Sydney, Faculty of Economics and Business - $14,910

In both the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Law, student feedback on the Unit of Study Evaluations and Student Course Experience Questionnaires reports that the workload is too high. Such student perceptions are highly correlated with students adopting a surface approach to learning which can be detrimental to academic performance. A collaborative project between the two Faculties, together with the Institute for Teaching and Learning, will investigate student workload issues and develop strategies to support both students and staff in developing desirable approaches to student workload. The study seeks to understand students? experiences and perceptions of the contributing factors to workload being considered ?too high?. The focus for the development of strategies for academics will be on identifying scaffolding and designs that support students? time on learning activities and assessments. The focus for students will be on developing their understanding of appropriate workload and effective ways to approach workload holistically and specifically across a range of learning, teaching and assessment activities.

Aligning curriculum objectives, outcomes and assessment

Full title: Improving professional learning and teaching through the development of a quality process which aligns curriculum objectives, outcomes and assessment with professional standards and graduate attributes

Project Team
Lesley Treleaven (Economics and Business)
Lesley Scanlon (Education) Project Leader
Lesley Laing (Social Work)
Jennifer Rowley (Sydney Conservatorium of Music)
Lorraine Smith (Pharmacy)

Granting Body
University of Sydney - TIES: Teaching Improvement and Equipment Scheme - $49,532

Governments, communities and professional bodies expect that graduates from professional degree programmes will not only acquire specific discipline knowledge but also acquire relevant professional standards and graduate attributes. Research also indicates that learning both graduate attributes and professional standards require explicit teaching. In an environment of accountability universities must acknowledge and include appropriate professional standards in degree programmes. This project aims to improve university-based professional learning and teaching in five professional degree programmes across four faculties ? Education & Social Work, the Conservatorium of Music, Business and Economics and Pharmacy. The project has three primary aims: first, evaluate the current alignment of curriculum objectives, outcomes and assessment with professional standards and graduate attributes. Second, to develop a quality assurance process to ensure regular curriculum review in order to maintain and enhance that alignment. Three, develop exemplar learning and teaching strategies to improvement alignment and improve learning and teaching.

Developing team based learning in a large first year unit of study 

Project Team
Lesley Treleaven - Learning and Teaching Partner
David Kim - Lecturer
Anu Rammohan - Lecturer

Granting Body
University of Sydney - TIES: Teaching Improvement and Equipment Scheme - $28,274

As part of the Economics Discipline?s initiative to improve first year teaching and learning, this project will develop, implement and evaluate a Team Based Learning (TBL) approach in one of the large core first year units. The project aims to increase feedback to students, improve student learning outcomes and enhance the student learning experience in ECON 1002. Over the last 30 years, US research has demonstrated TBL success in fostering student learning through the adoption of deep approaches to learning. Following a successful pilot study, a range of student-centred learning activities, driven by significant assessment (35%), will be developed. The implementation of these tutorial and preparatory activities will be supported by the development of tutors to provide improved feedback to students, successfully monitor and implement these new approaches and take part in evaluating the innovation. This initiative could potentially serve as a model for other large units in the Discipline such as ECON 1001, ECON 2001 and ECON 2002, and for units in other Disciplines.

The impact of short podcasts on learning and teaching

Project Team
Lucy Taylor - Learning and Teaching
Dr Steve Clark (UNSW)

Granting Body
University of Sydney - TIES: Teaching Improvement and Equipment Scheme - $31,672.60

This project investigates the impact of podcasting on student learning and identifies how to enhance the beneficial effects in a blended learning environment. The project will deliver a set of pedagogical and technical guidelines for podcasting that can be implemented into a unit of study.

Podcasting enables users to subscribe to and/or download digital media files over the internet for viewing on computers and portable media players. Many students already engage in podcasting for entertainment, but very few studies have been conducted into the impact of podcasting on student learning. With growing interest in the use of podcasting in the educational community there is an urgent need to develop pedagogical models to support and enhance student learning experiences (Edirisingha, Salmon, and Fothergill, 2006). While there is strong interest from a number of Faculties in the University of Sydney, there have been no strategic evidence-based research trials to determine the most effective way to implement podcasting into units of study within the local context.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • Clark S, Sutton-Brady C, Scott K and Taylor L 2007 'Short podcasts: The impact on learning and teaching',mLearn 2007 Conference Making the Connections, 6th International Conference on Mobile Learning, Melbourne.
  • Clark S, Westcott M and Taylor L 2007 'Using short podcasts to reinforce lectures',2007 National UniServe Conference, The University of Sydney.

Online Plagiarism Detection

Project Team
Mark Freeman

Software is a possible solution for making plagiarism detection simpler and building blocks for standard learning management systems such as Blackboard have recently become available eg. SafeAssignment.com.

Rather than detection after the event, we propose a strategy that uses detection software primarily as an educational tool. We posit that this approach will develop students? understanding of academic honesty, promote honest academic practices, support the development of students as ethical professionals (a common generic graduate attribute) and promote the pursuit of life long learning.

A pilot project has provided students the opportunity to submit draft written assessments for evaluation by SafeAssignment. Students then have the opportunity to detect incidences of plagiarism provided by the matching score of their work against both peers and existing published documents, and amend their assessments before final submission.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • Clark, S., Freeman, M., Westcott, M., and Yench, E. (2005) Developing Students' Understanding in Academic Honesty to Improve Learning, HERDSA Conference 2005: Higher education in a changing world July 3-6, 2005 Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Inc. (HERDSA).
  • Clark, S.. and Freeman, M. (2005) A Blended Learning Approach to Developing Student Understanding in Academic Honesty, 2005 National UniServe Conference on blended learning and assessment held at The University of Sydney 28th -30th September 2005.
  • Yench, E., Clark, S. and Freeman, M. (2005) Plagiarism detection software - an educational approach, Blackboard Asia Pacific Users Conference in Melbourne, Australia 28-29 September 2005.

Interactive in-class audience response system

Project Team
Mark Freeman

Interaction and peer learning with in-class questions is a common pedagogical solution to the large class problem. This can be facilitated by electronic response systems (ERS) which capture and aggregate student responses to in-class questions and allow for immediate feedback to students.

This research explores the impact of various approaches to promote active student engagement with in-class questions, supported by peer discussion learning where students responses could vary from being selected, a show of hands to the more anonymous form provided by the ERS.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • Blayney, P., Comerton-Forde, C., Freeman, M., and Pickering, J. (2005) Promoting interactive in-class learning environments using an electronic response system, HERDSA Conference 2005: Higher education in a changing world July 3-6, 2005 Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Inc. (HERDSA).
  • Freeman, M. and Blayney, P. (2005) Promoting interactive in-class learning environments: A comparison if an electronic response system with a traditional alternative, Eleventh Australasian Teaching Economics Conference: Innovation for Student engagement in Economics July 11-12, 2005 School of Economics and Political Science, The University of Sydney.

SPARK

Project Team
Mark Freeman

  • Freeman, M.& McKenzie J. 2002 'SPARK: A Confidential Web-Based Template for Self and Peer Assessment of Student Teamwork: Benefits of Evaluating Across Different Subjects', British Journal of Educational Technology, vol.33:5, pp. 551 - 569.

NGOs in a new planning framework for community services provision

Full title: Maximising the contribution of NGOs in a new planning framework for community services provision

Partners
Lesley Treleaven - Project Leader/Chief Investigator
Michael Darcy - Chief Investigator
The Illawarra Forum - Industry Partner

Granting Body
Australian Research Council - $135,655

This interdisciplinary study will investigate how the contribution of NGOs in a new planning framework for community services can be maximised. This is important as the Friedman Results Accountability Planning Framework is being adopted in NSW for whole-of-government, cross-sector, regionalised planning. Using participatory action research, this first Australian study will test and develop the framework?s capability to bring forward, value and fully utilise the knowledge of diverse communities and organisations. The research will open up possibilities not only for streamlining and delivering better human services but also for developing social capital with strong applications for social policy and local government.

Journal Articles, Conference Papers and Presentations:

  • Keevers, L. Treleaven, L. and Sykes, C. (forthcoming) "Partnership and participation: contradictions and tensions in the social policy space" Australian Journal of Social Issue
  • Keevers, L, Sykes, C, and Treleaven, L 'The policy space as a catalyst for the push to partnership and participation', refereed paper presented to the Governments and Communities in Partnership Conference, Centre for Public Policy, The University of Melbourne September 2006
  • Keevers, L. and Treleaven, L. 'Waltzing Matilda: Reflecting in/on the hot action of practice.' 23rd EGOS Colloquium Beyond Waltz-Dances of Individuals and Organizations Vienna University of Economics Vienna, July 5-7, 2007
  • Invited conference presentation at 'Community Care' Department of Aging Disability and Aged Care Forum, March 2007
  • Invited conference presentation at 'Steering our future: Community participation in social policy.' Illawarra Forum, Gerroa, 13t-14 November 2006.
  • Invited conference presentation at 'Directing our futures', University of Western Sydney. Industry conference on 25th August 2006
  • Doctoral conference presentation, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney, 7 December 2007