STAFF DETAILS

All teaching staff are student learning lecturers and can assist staff and students with learning issues. In addition, staff have particular areas of expertise that you may want to utilise. Click on individual staff names for these areas.

 

SLU staff details
Name	Position	Fraction
Fiona Henderson	Lecturer: language and learning	0.8
Geri Pancini	TLS grants coordinator	0.8
Gill Best	Lecturer: language and learning	0.6
Helen Murphy	Lecturer: language and learning	0.7
Janis Webb	Lecturer: language and learning	1.0 osp
Julie Dixon	Head of SLU	1.0
Kanchana Jayasuriya	Transition coordinator	1.0
Rob McCormack	Lecturer: language and learning	1.0
Ron Monson	Lecturer:Mathematics	1.0
Scott Mc Donald	Lecturer: language and learning	1.0
Teresa De Fazio	Lecturer: language and learning	0.6
Tom Petsinis	Lecturer:Mathematics	0.5

MISSION STATEMENT

Introduction

 

The Student Learning Unit is an academic language and learning skills unit which provides resources and advice for staff and students on the most appropriate methods to prepare and plan for Higher Education assignments and assessments in the current context. We are part of a national professional body: Association for Academic Language and Literacy (AALL).
  
With such a diverse range of students now entering university there is clearly a need to support their transition from prior educational experiences to university study. Mature- age students, international students and those from a non-English speaking background have particular needs; but all students need to develop new or more sophisticated academic skills. It is now recognised that they need explicit instruction in these skills.

 

University students are required to adopt a very specific style of academic writing, which they may not be skilled in or even fully aware of. The Student Learning Unit has helped to deconstruct academic discourse by providing learning materials and annotated examples for students; running orientation and general writing workshops, and organising peer mentoring as well as individual staff/student consultations. However, in line with recent research, it is now focusing more on working in collaboration with faculty staff to ensure that  discipline-specific language and learning skills are embedded into the assessment tasks within the particular curricula of each course of study.

 

Use the jump menu below to take you to the relevant section you wish to read

 

Direct support: teaching students to learn and write.

Equity, application and access: band-aids for the few?

Beyond the remedial/deficit model: a new school of thought.

The embedded skills model: language and learning within the curriculum.

Offering the best of both worlds: do we still help individual students?

Using resources wisely: how many SLU staff does it take to change a light bulb?

 

 

Teaching students to learn and write

For many years the specialised language and learning development staff within the Student Learning Unit  (SLU) have been providing orientation workshops in academic skills and organising generic writing workshops at various points during the year. They have also been advising students on an individual basis, through referral by teaching staff or in drop-in problem-solving sessions. We call this ‘direct’ support.
 

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Band-aids for the few?

But often the kind of general essay-writing, presentation and reading skills that students learn in generic sessions, though useful, don’t quite match up to the kind of things they are expected to do in their chosen course. For instance, the purpose of writing a case study for a psychology subject may be quite different from that of a case study for a Business faculty subject. As the process of writing is linked to the purpose of the writing task, generic writing courses are unable to prepare students completely for their subject-specific assignment tasks. Furthermore, many students are not aware that they are lacking in specific academic skills and therefore do not take advantage of either generic workshops or the limited number of more targeted individual and small group appointments provided by SLS. In addition, as more and more students hold down jobs while they are studying, many do not feel they have the time to attend special sessions.

 

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A new school of thought

As SLU resources are very limited, we are unable to provide enough staff specialised in language and learning to equitably support all students on an individual basis. Moreover, research undertaken at Wollongong University and at VU suggests that the most effective way of assisting students is to integrate both generic and discipline-specific academic skills instruction inside the curriculum. So there is increasing recognition that there needs to be a move away from a remedial/deficit model, where a small percentage of students are given general or individual assistance with their ‘problems’, to a model that recognises that student language and learning development is the joint responsibility of the program teacher and SLS staff.

 

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Language & learning instruction within the curriculum

 

Thus we are now committed to efforts to embed academic literacy and learning skills within the assessment tasks of individual subjects. In this way of working, SLS Academic Language & Learning staff are an integral part of the learning design team. Increasingly they collaborate with program teaching staff to develop models of the academic discipline-specific types of writing (or ‘genres’) required of their students. In this context, they also develop materials which can be used by students to extend their understanding of the discipline-specific language and academic conventions they are required to use in assignments. We call this ‘indirect’ support.

 

SLU staff can advise on both staging (chunking information into learnable steps) and scaffolding (providing a ‘scaffold’ of tasks to help learning, which are gradually removed as the student improves their understanding and skills), and on ways to make explicit the English Language/discourse and numeracy skills necessary to the academic discipline within the program curriculum materials, as well as within the teaching approach and assessment practices.

 

We believe that this collaborative ‘embedded’ model is the most effective way of addressing the language and learning development needs of all students. It is also in line with new directions in curriculum developments in both TAFE and Higher Education that emphasize the development of generic skills in conjunction with, rather than separate from, content knowledge.

 

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We are not advocating the complete replacement of the more traditional forms of student support with the ‘embedded’ model. In particular situations, individual consultations, drop-ins or generic language and learning programs are appropriate. However, we believe that unless language and learning considerations are fully integrated in the design of academic courses, these more traditional forms of student support are less effective.

 

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Depends on how you analyse the question. Maybe it’s not the light bulb that needs to be changed but, rather, some academic traditions.

 

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SLU AND THE LEARNING COMMONS

The LC is a student space, situated in what used to be the traditional VU campus libraries. It includes enhanced provision of technological, informational and communication resources to facilitate student learning and a space that is learning-oriented, learner-centred, flexible, collaborative, university-wide and community-building.

In the LC, learning strategies are discussed, shared, modeled and learnt.  Students can note, discuss, compare, adopt, adapt and evaluate different understandings, strategies and approaches to academic study. The LC is thus a place of reflective, collaborative conversation and interpretation, not just isolated, individual internalization of the procedural routines of technical systems of information.

SLS and student rovers

Student rovers will be working in the LC during semester.  It is envisaged that they will help other students to articulate basic issues related to their learning strategies and enhance students’ awareness of options or a need for further information, thus modeling effective learning strategies.

Further Information

• For more information on student rovers, and the learning commons in general, click here

• For info on how SLS will work in the LC, click here

• For background info on VU LC, click on the following links:

Keating, S. & Gabb, R. 2005, Putting learning into the Learning Commons.

 

ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 2007

 

The 2006 - 2007 CSLS Annual Report is divided into six main sections, as indicated below. Click on the title to go to the relevant section.

Download whole report as pdf. Or, view each section separately: Introduction Systemic Approaches to Language and Learning Support (.pdf)    Direct Language and Learning Support (.pdf) Online Study Resources (.pdf) Research and "Other" (.pdf)                                                               INTRODUCTION   The Centre for Student Learning Services (CSLS) assists Victoria University (VU) in meeting such strategic priorities as outlined in its Strategic Plan. The support CSLS provided in 2006 was framed within the context of the Learning and Teaching Functional plan which included emphasis on: developing the use of accessible technologies and flexible delivery in all courses’ ; commitment to the development of ‘flexible, accessible and inclusive strategies to support International students both on and offshore’ ; development of a managed transition program to reduce attrition; extension of mentoring programs in Higher Education HE and articulated courses ; and the development of a Learning Commons. The Centre works closely with the Postcompulsory Education Centre (PEC), which is the research arm of Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) and with the university’s academic development unit (Staff College) to enhance understandings of student needs in the context of the whole teaching and learning community.  The Centre has also forged strong links with Careers, Library and Student Services. The Centre for Student Learning Services – Units and Provision   In 2005 three distinct units were combined to form CSLS.  These units have worked closely together to provide effective support across all sectors of the university.  These units are:   English Language Institute (ELI) – providing English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) programs Concurrent Assistance (CA) – support for Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students Student Learning Unit (SLU) – support for Higher Education (HE) students   Over the past two years provision has included:  English language and academic skills support for students from Certificate 1 to postgraduate; classes, workshops, drop-in times, self-access & online materials; team teaching, guest lectures, tutorials and individual appointments; English language preparatory courses for international students on and offshore; English language testing for international students onshore and offshore; assistance and advice for VU staff in developing and implementing strategies for supporting students, including Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) and international students; work with academic transition and academic peer mentoring and advice on policy development. The Centre collaborates with Faculty and School staff to develop strategies to enhance student learning and students’ abilities to deal with the demands of tertiary education and learning tasks.  The SLU staff to student ratio is: 1:3000 for direct Language and Learning support 1:>10,000 for Maths The CA staff to student ratio is: 1: 5000 for English as a Second Language (ESL)/ Literacy 1: 11453 for Maths/ Technology Our most effective way of addressing student needs is to work with mainstream staff on building academic language into classroom curriculum and approaches.  This leaves the direct, intensive student support open for those most requiring it.  ELI prepares international students to reach the University English language entrance requirements through offering intensive English language courses. It has 10.4 staff to run these. Back to Jump Menu

 

CONTACT DETAILS

Admin contacts: Bernadette Trickey or Monica Kemp (9919 4744)

Address:
Student Learning Unit

Building M

Footscray Park Campus

 

Map available here

 

Tel: 9919 4744

 

Fax: 9919 4766

 

E-mail: studentlearning@vu.edu.au