Conference presentation
Encouraging critical thinking and independent learning among non-traditional students in the Southern Cross Model
SCU Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Symposium (Online, 09/11/2021 - 11/11/2021)
09/11/2021
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Abstract
The widening participation agenda advanced more than a decade ago by the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education (Bradley et al., 2008) has accelerated the ongoing growth and diversification of students at Australian universities (Lacy et al., 2017). Many higher education providers, including SCU, now serve an increasingly non-traditional student body, including learners who are first-in-family, from low socio-economic areas, and/or mature-aged (Devlin, 2017). Such students tend to have complex competing demands on their time and focus, which can put them at greater risk for non-completion (Cherastidtham?et al., 2018).
Recent evidence suggests that studying in shorter teaching periods with fewer concurrent units can enhance the success and achievement of students from non-traditional backgrounds (Samarawickrema & Cleary, 2021). However, to what extent the Southern Cross Model (SCM) can also improve success rates and academic performance is currently unclear. This presentation provides preliminary data from SCU s enabling course, the Preparing for Success Program (PSP), which enrolled over 300 students in the SCM in Study Period 2, 2021.
Unit performance data provide early indications that studying in the SCM can increase the success and academic achievement of non-traditional learners. Furthermore, qualitative focus group comments from 13 PSP students contribute promising evidence that curricula delivered in the SCM can enhance both critical thinking and the development of independent learning strategies among novice, non-traditional learners. The cultivation of respectful and dialogic learning environments underpinned by the GEMS Model of Success (Hellmundt & Baker, 2017) and critical pedagogy (Syme et al., in press) were found to be central to these developments. Rather than encouraging dependence on teachers, such approaches instead built students capacities to critically evaluate and disseminate knowledge as responsible and independent learners. Overall, this study has found that when all elements of the SCM pedagogy, self-access modules, active classes, and scaffolded assessments work together, powerfully transformative learning that enables the success and achievement of non-traditional learners can occur.
Details
- Title
- Encouraging critical thinking and independent learning among non-traditional students in the Southern Cross Model
- Creators
- Elizabeth Goode (Author) - Southern Cross UniversitySuzi Syme (Author) - Southern Cross UniversityJohanna Nieuwoudt (Author) - Southern Cross University
- Conference
- SCU Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Symposium (Online, 09/11/2021 - 11/11/2021)
- Identifiers
- 991013139612602368
- Academic Unit
- Office of the PVC (Academic Quality)
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Local Fields
- Evidence Based Practice - SoLT