Case writing for collaborative practice in education studies

What is it about?

The aims of this collaborative practitioner research (CPR) project were to consolidate the work of an emerging community of practice (CoP), involving teachers from both the College of Education and the College of Arts (Burridge et al., 2010; Kruger and Cherednichenko, 2009). The CoP sought to critically review pedagogical practices in a bid to develop effective teaching and learning spaces for students in their first year of university study. An additional goal of the research team was to build supportive structures for teachers who worked across sectors and faculties. Such a collaborative approach to working in university programs is essential in the development of a whole-of-institution “transition pedagogy” (Kift and Nelson, 2005; Nelson et al., 2009).

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Why is it important?

The key aims were to increase transition capability through changes in curriculum design and to integrate LLN development sufficient to prepare diploma graduates for success in future undergraduate study (Victoria University, 2012). Other goals of the program were to clarify how these stated aims were being met and, above all, to ensure that the diploma became central to the development of and sustainable application of a reflexive, comprehensive and effective transition pedagogy (Kift, 2011). To this end, staff developed year-long foundational units that scaffold students’ skills in literacy and numeracy and that were linked to higher education (HE) first year units. The academic language and learning (ALL) unit, Researching Literacies and Learning (RLL), was designed collaboratively to support and even enrich the core HE unit, LiCW. Initially, this synchronous development hinged on three central curriculum questions held in common by the LiCW and RLL teachers: how do we introduce students to learning theories in ways they can meaningfully relate? how do we enable students to develop stances in relation to rival perspectives in educational theory? and how do we enable students to draw on theories in academic study and later practice in teaching?