This edition has contributions from Portugal, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the UK, the US, Hong Kong and South Africa. Innovations for effective learning are uppermost with particular perspectives on assessment including OSCES in medical sciences, on problem-based learning, on ‘disruptive technologies’, threshold concepts, communities of practice and research informed teaching.
Innovations often feel risky. In ‘Disruptive conduct: the impact of disruptive technologies on social relations in higher education’, Michael Flavin, King’s Learning Institute, King’s College London argues that although costly digital technologies provided by HEIs have not been universally successful in terms of adoption and usage, students and lecturers prefer disruptive (and convenient) technologies to support learning and teaching, the use of which he examines using Activity Theory. A different kind of riskiness is explored in ‘The Guinea pigs of a problem-based learning curriculum’ by Sarasvathie Reddy, University of KwaZulu-Natal & Sioux McKenna, Rhodes University, South Africa, who interrogate and problematise the ‘guinea pig’, marginalised identity chosen by participants in a study on learning clinical aspects of medicine in a problem-based learning (PBL).
Problem-based learning is a focus in several other essays. Cecilia K.Y. Chan, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), University of Hong Kong (HKU), China considers ‘Facilitators’ perspectives of the factors that affect the effectiveness of problem-based learning process’ arguing that many educational researchers have established PBL as a total approach to education from a pedagogical instructional strategy to skills development to assessment. The study provides qualitative evidence from educational practitioners in various professional disciplines and contexts arguing for training, guidelines and clear understanding of PBL and communications between curriculum developers and PBL facilitators. In PBL and approaches to learning: ‘The impact of PBL on transferable skills development in management education’, Ana Carvalho, University of Minho, Portugal focuses on current attention to transferable skills and the related increasing use of PBL in management education using structural equation modelling to examine its effectiveness, measured through students’ perceptions of satisfaction and skills development, defining teamwork rules and understanding how organisations work.
Assessment is a crucial aspect of higher education and in ‘What are we missing? Spanish lecturers’ perceptions of their assessment practices ‘V. Quesada-Serra and colleagues, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain present a survey study analysing lecturers’ perceptions of assessment practices, particularly tasks developed to monitor student learning and those designed to promote active student participation, finding that lecturers assigned importance to the monitoring of student learning but placed less importance on student participation in such assessments and rarely used such tasks. Assessment is also the focus of ‘The implementation and development of an objective structured clinical examination in the community pharmacy course of a select Gulf-region academic institution (Ras Al Khaimah College of Pharmaceutical Sciences): a pilot study’ in which Amad Mohammed Jamil Al-Azzawi and colleagues use Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) to assess translational pharmacotherapeutic, clinical skills of a Gulf-region-representative academic institution. They argue that the design and implementation of the OSCE within their institution represents a cornerstone in pharmaceutical higher education useful to shape and tailor future standards and professional development programmes.
In ‘An alternative grading tool for enhancing assessment practise and quality assurance in higher education’ Peter Grainger & Katie Weir, University of the Sunshine Coast, and Griffith University, Australia introduce an alternative style of grading tool, the Continua Model of a Guide to Making Judgments which arranges assessment criteria based on a continuum of quality in student work, finding that the Continua model has significant advantages over traditional, matrix-style criteria sheet including being easier to identify and describe different standards, simplifying the grading process and streamlining moderation procedures.
In ‘Supporting online faculty through communities of practice: finding the faculty voice’ Julie E. Golden, Centre for eLearning, Florida Atlantic University, USA discusses faculty development efforts for supporting online instructors, a growing concern for higher education administrators. This review examines the use of a community of practice (CoP) approach for online faculty support indicating that collaborative faculty groups provide fertile ground for processing ideas and co-creating new knowledge.
Helen Ashworth, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK explores ‘Students’ acquisition of a threshold concept in childhood and youth studies’ following undergraduate students’ engagement with the threshold concept of childhood, discussing the pedagogical implications of students ‘unlearning’ prior knowledge and suggesting effective practice in encouraging a more reflective approach. In ‘The research-teaching nexus: using a construction teaching event as a research tool’ Maria del Mar Casanovas-Rubio and colleagues, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, Spain, and Imperial College London, UK, present a case study in which some student field-trip construction projects, originally designed as a teaching tool, were also used to undertake environmental research. Their reinteresting essays here develop a dialogue concerning research teaching links, assessment, modes of engaging students actively in learning through PBL and field trips, staff support and development.
Editor