title: Student perspectives on good university teachers: communication, clarity, commitment, care

authors: Parmenter, Lynne

subjects: Student perspectives

abstract: Using findings from a 2-year mixed methods study, this paper explores undergraduate engineering student perspectives on good university teachers. Findings from open survey questions and semi-structured interviews were analysed using principles of grounded theory, resulting in four themes identified by students as key to good university teaching: communication, clarity, commitment, and care. These findings are discussed in relation to recent international debates on teaching excellence. The basic argument of the paper is that the discourse of teaching excellence needs to be critically reconsidered and would benefit from inclusion of the actual perspectives of students rather than student voice discourses framed by others.

text: Student perspectives on good university teachers: communication, clarity, commitment, care Using findings from a 2-year mixed methods study, this paper explores undergraduate engineering student perspectives on good university teachers. Findings from open survey questions and semi-structured interviews were analysed using principles of grounded theory, resulting in four themes identified by students as key to good university teaching: communication, clarity, commitment, and care. These findings are discussed in relation to recent international debates on teaching excellence. The basic argument of the paper is that the discourse of teaching excellence needs to be critically reconsidered and would benefit from inclusion of the actual perspectives of students rather than student voice discourses framed by others.

year: 2022-05-12

title: Rats, plagues, and children, Oh My! Multimodal representations of the past in historical games

authors: Redder, Ben Dorrington

subjects: visuality design

abstract: Since their inception, Game Studies and its sub-discipline Historical Game Studies have stressed the pedagogical potential of (historical) games for learning. Today, popular off-the-shelf historical digital games such as Assassin’s Creed: Origins (2017), Total War: Three Kingdoms (2019), and Red Dead Redemption (2010) have achieved period-faithful and authentic interactive representations of elements of history that possess pedagogical value distinct from written accounts. To substantiate this claim, the authors forward a multimodal account of the varied ways in which historical knowledge is present in both game design and the gameplay experience. Their approach is illustrated with an under-investigated (yet valuable) mode of historical exploration – ‘Imaginative History.’ Using video and/or screen captures from several sequences of recorded game footage taken from A Plague Tale: Innocence, the authors present a case example from the game’s fantastical portrayal of the Black Death plague. The game’s value for teaching and learning is examined in relation to its re-mediation and subversion of past pre-modern folklore imaginations and beliefs concerning the Black Death. The authors also account for the relevance of the way games achieve a specific mode of engagement that is experientially based and structured within gameplay

text: Rats, plagues, and children, Oh My! Multimodal representations of the past in historical games Since their inception, Game Studies and its sub-discipline Historical Game Studies have stressed the pedagogical potential of (historical) games for learning. Today, popular off-the-shelf historical digital games such as Assassin’s Creed: Origins (2017), Total War: Three Kingdoms (2019), and Red Dead Redemption (2010) have achieved period-faithful and authentic interactive representations of elements of history that possess pedagogical value distinct from written accounts. To substantiate this claim, the authors forward a multimodal account of the varied ways in which historical knowledge is present in both game design and the gameplay experience. Their approach is illustrated with an under-investigated (yet valuable) mode of historical exploration – ‘Imaginative History.’ Using video and/or screen captures from several sequences of recorded game footage taken from A Plague Tale: Innocence, the authors present a case example from the game’s fantastical portrayal of the Black Death plague. The game’s value for teaching and learning is examined in relation to its re-mediation and subversion of past pre-modern folklore imaginations and beliefs concerning the Black Death. The authors also account for the relevance of the way games achieve a specific mode of engagement that is experientially based and structured within gameplay

year: 2022

title: Behind the label: Complexities of identifying Māori whānau in an away from home hospital transfer

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

subjects: Māori whānau

abstract: This paper highlights two methodological issues that arose for a group of Māori researchers during the first few months of a Māori CoRE funded project. The issues were in relation to defining 1) the evolving construction of Māori whānau in New Zealand, and 2) an away from home hospital transfer. Through the process of reflexive practice about our knowledge constructs the research team highlight some of the complexities that we as indigenous researchers had to navigate when working within a cultural context. We describe the details of the Hospital Transfers project and reflect on the learning experienced during the pilot interview phase of a three year project.

text: Behind the label: Complexities of identifying Māori whānau in an away from home hospital transfer This paper highlights two methodological issues that arose for a group of Māori researchers during the first few months of a Māori CoRE funded project. The issues were in relation to defining 1) the evolving construction of Māori whānau in New Zealand, and 2) an away from home hospital transfer. Through the process of reflexive practice about our knowledge constructs the research team highlight some of the complexities that we as indigenous researchers had to navigate when working within a cultural context. We describe the details of the Hospital Transfers project and reflect on the learning experienced during the pilot interview phase of a three year project.

year: 2017