JournalTOCs

Student Success : A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education
Number of Followers: 15

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 2205-0795
Published by Queensland University of Technology

[3 journals]

Guest Editorial: Fostering Connections in Higher Education
- Authors: Katelyn Barney, Nicole Crawford, Janine Delahunty
  Pages: i - iii
  Abstract: This special issue of Student Success explores the importance of “connections” that contribute to students embarking upon, participating in and achieving their academic and other goals in higher education. While there are many possible connections and relationships that contribute to student success, this special issue focuses on the pedagogies and practices that contribute to students feeling connected and supported in their journey into and through higher education. In Relationship-rich education: How human connections drive success in college, Felton and Lambert (2020) highlight the importance of human relationships for an “excellent college experience”. Certainly, connection and relationship building is even more vital since COVID-19. Therefore, in this special issue, we explore the multitudes of connections that are two-way and contribute to students transitioning into, participating in and succeeding in higher education, as well as how higher education itself has been enriched by the increasing diversity of students. This includes the attention that has been paid to inclusive practices that has the potential to benefit all students.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2702
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
School-Based Enabling Programs: Creating Opportunity and Connection
- Authors: Anita Olds, Angela Jones, Rebekah Sturniolo-Baker, Shane Clark, Jaimee Dawson, Wesley McGrath, Curtis Plumb, Catherine Schwartz, Carmel White
  Pages: 1 - 10
  Abstract: A growing body of literature and rhetoric from the secondary sector recognises that traditional senior secondary curriculums are not catering to all university aspirational students. This need created an opportunity for University Preparation Pathways (UPP) at Murdoch University to provide a transitional path for an underserviced cohort. FlexiTrack High (FTH), a pioneering school-based enabling program, demonstrates how effective course design can create opportunities for underserviced cohorts, contribute to the Government’s goal of raising tertiary participation rates amongst young people and foster connections between tertiary and secondary institutions. Utilising a second-generation Enabling Transition Pedagogy (ETP), this report explores the pedagogical underpinnings of an effective school-based program. Autoethnographic data obtained through a unique collaboration between Murdoch and partnerships schools, as well as quantitative progression data and student surveys, provide early indicators of the wide range of impacts an explicit model of this nature can have on students and schools.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2436
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
Community, Engagement and Connectedness: Reflections on Pathway Programs
at a Regional Australian University
- Authors: Jenny Spence, Charmaine Davis, Jonathan H Green, Orie Green, Marcus Harmes, Celeste Sherwood
  Pages: 11 - 19
  Abstract: The progressive democratisation of Australian higher education has numerous causes including the increase in the number of universities and therefore university places across the later 20th and into the 21st century, as well as initiatives by governments of different ideological hues to increase the total percentage of the population with a university degree. This latter impulse, in particular, has increased significantly the number of students entering university via pathway programs, meaning programs which provide the opportunity to undertake study to inculcate university-standard skills and enable matriculation into university for people who are otherwise ineligible. The students in pathway programs are sometimes disengaged from learning, coming from so-called non-traditional pathways that may signify a disconnect between them and their institutions of learning. This practice report, therefore, examines efforts to address “connectedness” in pathway programs at a regional university in Australia. The pathway programs at UniSQ College are underpinned by an inclusive and holistic teaching philosophy that supports students’ access to higher education. Through the lenses of social, emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and collaborative engagement, practitioners examined and reflected on ways in which this philosophy was embedded in the day-to-day work of UniSQ College through deliberate efforts to promote and maintain connectedness. By reflecting on and articulating these connections, we have provided a base for developing a future evaluative framework that will critically examine the extent to which our practices, through student engagement, foster connectedness.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2441
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
Connecting Postgraduate Students and Older Adults in the Community to
Support Wellbeing: A Service-Learning Module During COVID-19 and Beyond
- Authors: Donata Puntil, Gisele Dias, Carolina Kralj, Cathy Deplessis, Elizabeth Rylance-Watson, Carol Ma, Patricia A Zunszain
  Pages: 20 - 28
  Abstract: The aim of this practice report is to discuss the implementation of a service-learning module developed to support the psychological wellbeing of postgraduate students and older adults in the community, with a view to fostering their connection and tackling loneliness in both populations. The module, ‘Self-Identity, Intergenerational and Intercultural Learning’ (SIIL), was offered to students enrolled in the Mental Health Studies Master of Science at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. The module included lectures on the scientific underpinnings of wellbeing and ageism positionally within intercultural and intergenerational contexts. Students were introduced to qualitative research with a focus on autoethnography. They engaged with older adults through phone conversations and undertook wellbeing-promoting experiential exercises and self-reflection. The interactions provided students the opportunity to learn at an academic and personal level, while allowing older adults to share their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. These lessons learnt will inform future practice. Future directions for further developments of this methodology in other disciplines are also discussed in this practice report.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2481
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
Turning the Tables: Using Non-English Conversation Tables to Create
Connections for International Students, Campus, and Community
- Authors: Janet Eckerson, Christopher Jacobs, Ladan Ghazi Saidi, Dawn Mollenkopf, Phu Vu
  Pages: 29 - 36
  Abstract: International students, especially those studying in English language institutes at universities in the United States, often struggle to create connections with local students and the host community. Learners of non-English languages also struggle to find opportunities to practice languages that are uncommon in the surrounding community. This Practice Report describes an innovation where, instead of using English Conversation Tables to help international students practice English, professors “turned the tables” and allowed international students to become the experts, teaching local students their languages and cultures at weekly Non-English Conversation Tables held at a mid-sized rural public university. Through the Conversation Tables, both international and domestic students developed meaningful connections, deepening their on-campus engagement. These connections fostered self-growth and intercultural competence in both groups of students, some of whom had very limited prior experiences with cultural diversity. The authors identify the characteristics of the language tables that led to their success, including the location, facilitation, and promotion, to provide a model for reproducing the intervention in other contexts.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2445
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
“The Connection Itself was the Project”: Capstone Experiences for
Emerging Professional Musicians Through WIL
- Authors: Narelle Yeo, Sophie Mohler, Ines Paxton, Helen Hoi Ting Kwan, Lachlan Massey, Thomas Hallworth
  Pages: 37 - 45
  Abstract: During their studies, musicians transition to work-readiness, develop a professional persona and graduate from skills acquisition in a traditional master-mentor relationship towards heterarchical collaboration in ensembles. Over the final year of an undergraduate program in performance, students, faculty/industry mentors and course coordinators worked collaboratively to implement a music work integrated learning (WIL) project, culminating in public performance as a capstone experience. This phenomenological case report outlines how a student group with diverse skills formed a complex adaptive system through inclusion, connection, support, and collaboration culminating in a final public performance and this practice report. Through this process, students obtained a broad range of graduate skills as well as professional musical competencies within a functioning heterarchy. In creative and performing arts, WIL can positively produce professional outcomes that appear indistinguishable from professional practice in the industry at large. This can be a model for transformative WIL in other disciplines. In addition, this research and practice report was prepared primarily by students with a faculty mentor, providing yet another set of graduate skills to musicians seeking portfolio careers in the arts.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2484
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
Taking University to the Students: Forging Connections and Inclusion
Through Regional University Centres (RUCs)
- Authors: Cathy Stone, Sharron King, Chris Ronan
  Pages: 46 - 53
  Abstract: For regional students, going to university frequently involves moving away from important home, family and community connections to forge new connections in unfamiliar environments. This is a daunting prospect discouraging many from considering university as an option. But what if university could come to them, allowing them to stay where they feel most connected, whilst also becoming connected with other students and developing a sense of inclusion within university culture' Recent research with high school students in regional South Australia indicates that the combination of online delivery (increasingly mainstreamed due to COVID-19) and the growing presence of Regional University Centres (RUCs) may provide the opportunity for this to happen. This paper discusses these findings within the context of the challenges for regional students in moving away from their connections. It argues that, instead, important learning connections may be offered within their local communities through the collaboration between universities and RUCs.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2434
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)
Strategies for Student Belonging: The Nexus of Policy and Practice in
Higher Education
- Authors: Brendan Mahoney, Jennifer Kumar, Mohammed Sabsabi
  Pages: 54 - 62
  Abstract: This practice report, framed within transition pedagogy (Kift et al., 2010), seeks to offer suggestions to assist higher education educators and administrators to develop and apply policies to foster student belonging. The authors of this article are employed at an Australian university which offers alternative pathways for students to enter a mainstream university degree. The authors were part of a project sub-committee responsible for reviewing literature on the definition of, and approaches to, belonging and writing a report with suggestions to enhance student engagement and progression. The report concluded that belonging should be a “whole-of-institution” approach (TEQSA, 2020) where all aspects of a student’s journey are considered when developing and applying student success strategies. This practice report culminates past studies and offers belonging enhancing teaching advice, policy suggestions and learning tools to strengthen connections between students and the higher education institutions in which they are enrolled.
  PubDate: 2022-11-29
  DOI: 10.5204/ssj.2479
  Issue No: Vol. 13, No. 3 (2022)