Table Of ContentNAVIGATING THE RIVER
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Navigating The River
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Mervyn Protheroe • EDITOR
The Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors
Aotearoa/New Zealand
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7 Volume 7
Navigating the River
He waka eke noa
Proceedings of the 2011 Annual International Conference of the
Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors of Aotearoa/New Zealand
(ATLAANZ)
30 November – 2 December 2011, Petone, New Zealand
Editor
Mervyn Protheroe
Learning Commons
WelTec
Navigating the River: Proceedings of the 2011 Annual International
Conference of the Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors of Aotearoa/New
Zealand (ATLAANZ)
ISBN: 978-0-9582889-5-8
Published 2012 by the Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors of Aotearoa/New
Zealand Inc (ATLAANZ)
Address: c/o Centre for Teaching and Learning
Massey University
Private Bag 10294
North Shore City 0745
New Zealand
Telephone: +64 9 414 0800
Email: [email protected]
Copyright © ATLAANZ 2012 and authors
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Cover design: Michael Hyndman
Cover photo: Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
Page layout and design: dhdesignz (www.dhdesignz.co.nz)
Printed by: Print Matters
Table of contents
Preface and acknowledgements iii
Foreword v
Editor’s introduction vi
Offshore – onshore: How international students’ expectations of the New Zealand 1
academic environment compare to their lived experience
Cath Fraser and Pam Simpson
The Poutama tukutuku metaphor and how it adds value to the tertiary 16
learning journey
Adele Holland and Mary Silvester
The pedagogy and practice of elearning: Looking back to redirect the flow 21
Susan Carter, Ashwini Datt, and Claire Donald
Avoiding plagiarism: Steering clear of the rocks 37
Deborah Laurs
Drifting with the current or steering our own course? EAP practitioners 49
in New Zealand
Pat Strauss
WaiBoost: An intensive cohort programme for developing tertiary-level 58
academic skills
E. Marcia Johnson, Andrea Haines and Christina Gera
Creating a place at the table or getting a seat on the boat: Reflections 71
on a strategy to position Academic Language and Learning work in relation to
national agendas
Bronwyn James
KEYS to Academic Writing Success: A six-stage process account 82
Quentin Allan
Navigating towards success: Supporting students on academic probation 107
Catherine Ross
i
Invisible Ties: Finding Learning as It Happens 124
Sean Sturm
Appendix 1: Statistics related to the proceedings 142
ii
Preface and acknowledgements
The articles accepted for these conference proceedings were double blind refereed
using at least two referees. Statistics regarding this process are included in the
Appendix.
I would like to extend my thanks to the referees, who gave both their time and
expertise to ensure that the review process occurred in a complete and timely fashion.
Many authors, including those who decided not to continue to publication, expressed
their appreciation for the time and effort put in on their behalf, and the resulting
valuable feedback. The referees for this publication were:
Cath Fraser Deborah Laurs ‘Ema Wolfgang-Foliaki
Julie Batchelor Xiadon Gao Meegan Hall
Caitriona Cameron Mary Roberts Emmanuel Manalo
I would also like to thank the contributors, who not only completed research and
presented at the conference, but took the time to submit and revise their papers in the
light of the feedback that they received.
The ATLAANZ 2011 conference would not have occurred without the time and
commitment of the other committee members, namely Elizabeth Merton, Tim Barrie
and Mary Weddell. I will always be grateful for their hard work and perseverance
in ensuring that conference milestones were achieved. Furthermore, I would like
to thank Mere Toss Davidson without whose administrative skills, the conference
organisation would not only have been more difficult but also the final result would
not have been as good. I would like to thank her especially for her calm, solution
based approach to the many problems that surfaced during the planning stages.
Additionally, I would like to thank the presenters for the time and effort they put into
producing the conference sessions. Specifically, I would like to thank Kathryn Berkett
and Dr. Pamela Protheroe who stood in at the last minute with engaging and useful
sessions, to cover for presenters who were unavailable on the day.
I would like to thank Ako Aotearoa for their sponsorship of the conference. Their
financial contribution greatly assisted the convenors in hosting the event.
Bernie Cooper, who was the Webperson for ATLAANZ during the planning stages of
this conference, needs special mention. Without her skillful additions to the webpage,
particularly the link to Paypal, delegates would have found not only paying conference
fees more stressful, but also not had complete up-to-date, timely conference
information.
iii
I would also like to thank all the members of the ATLAANZ executive and the
conference delegates who acted as session chairs to the various presentations.
Specifically, I am indebted to Vanessa van der Ham for her diligent checking of the
final proof of the proceedings before it was sent off for printing. Her input has resulted
in a better final product.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of WelTec’s staff, who pulled together in the week
prior to and during the conference to ensure the event was successful. Without
everyone’s help this event would not have run as smoothly as it did.
Mervyn Protheroe
Learning Commons
WelTec
iv
Foreword
In 2011 the theme for the ATLAANZ conference at Weltec in Petone was Navigating
the River. In addition to its local geographical reference, this title was an appropriate
metaphor for the experiences of Learning Centres and Tertiary Learning Advisors
trying to keep afloat in the turbulence of organisational restructuring and diminishing
budgets in 2011. We saw an alarming number of ATLAANZ members facing
redundancy in that year, and I would like to thank all those whom we lost in this
maelstrom for their years of tireless work for the Association. While it is certainly
not plain sailing yet and pockets of instability still exist, I am hoping that we can look
forward to a smoother journey ahead.
As usual, there were many excellent presentations at the conference, and this volume
of the proceedings represents a sample of the outstanding work being done in our area
of expertise. Besides thanking the contributors for the time and effort they have put
into getting their papers ready for publication, and the referees who so willingly gave
of their time to read and give feedback on the articles, I would particularly like to
thank Mervyn Protheroe and his team at Petone for the many hours they have put in
preparing these papers for publication. Their work has contributed to another valuable
publication for our profession.
Ken Cage
ATLAANZ President
2012
v
Editor’s introduction
The 2011 ATLAANZ conference theme Navigating the River was chosen to enable
Tertiary Learning Advisors to reflect on their students’ learning journeys, and the
varyingly different effects that the flow of the river has on students as they progress
down and sometime upstream. For some, the journey is smooth and steady, for
others more like white water rafting. The three sub themes: ‘Navigating the rapids’;
‘Looking back up river’ and ‘Listening to the water’ were intended to help focus
the presentations on working with youth, reflecting on successes and obstacles and
listening to student voices. The papers in these proceedings reflect these goals.
Cath Fraser and Pam Simpson explore how international students’ expectations of
studying in New Zealand gel with their actual experiences, and the implications these
may have for Learning Advisors and student support services. Their findings highlight
the difficulties international students experience when living and studying here.
Adele Holland and Mary Silvester reflect on how academic learning can best be
fostered in an increasingly diverse and expanding tertiary environment. They
document how they reconceptualised their learning development services through the
lens of the Poutama tukutuku metaphor and explain how this reconceptualisation adds
value to students’ tertiary learning journeys.
Susan Carter, Ashwini Datt, and Claire Donald report and critically reflect on the
development of face to face teaching material into an online module for doctoral
students. They outline the process of this development and report on the changing
views of one of the authors regarding online media.
Deborah Laurs identifies and evaluates the typical range of responses to plagiarism,
and the changing environment in which information is sourced. She describes
plagiarism as a danger that lurks beneath the surface of the river and invites Learning
Advisors and academics to consider the most effective ways of helping students avoid
these potential dangers.
Pat Strauss explores the past and current situation with which English for academic
purposes (EAP) practitioners were and are now presented. She argues that a
reconsideration and renegotiation of the role of English in the academy is required if
there is to be a real sense of inclusiveness for all tertiary students.
E. Marcia Johnson, Andrea Haines, and Christina Gera describe the successes
and challenges of an intensive academic upskilling programme (WaiBoost) at the
University of Waikato. Their research results indicate that WaiBoost intensive
teaching and follow-up approaches are pedagogically effective. They conclude with
recommendations for intensive upskilling programmes of a similar nature.
vi
Bronwyn James, from an Australian context, considers collaboration events among
higher education institutions in regards academic language and learning (ALL)
educators and the relationship of their work to current national higher education
agendas. She then reflexively and reflectively examines one such event.
Quentin Allen outlines the practical approach taken at Auckland University of
Technology (AUT) to foster academic writing skills with first year students. The Keys
to Academic Writing Success (KAWS) programme has received positive feedback
from both staff and students, and Quentin clearly elucidates the processes that staff
have put in place to improve student writing.
Catherine Ross describes a pilot programme put in place at the Open Polytechnic
which targets students on academic probation. The programme, which uses positive
psychology and a strengths approach, focuses on helping students clarify their study
goals and determine how they might apply their strengths to the skills needed for
successful study.
Sean Sturm eruditely explores how we can assess learning as it happens. He considers
different forms of assessment, the move from transmission, through transaction to
transformation and indicates what to assess using five learning attributes.
vii
