Learning, Teaching and Assessment: The influence of the cultures of the disciplines

Professor Richard James
Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne

The Centre for the Study of Higher Education is conducting an ARC Discovery Grant project that is examining how attitudes and approaches towards assessment and curricula are shaped by disciplinary cultures and the epistemologies of the disciplines. This presentation will look at the different ways academics conceptualise teaching, learning and assessment, focussing on the ways in which generic skills are interpreted across the disciplines. The challenges for enhancing assessment within the current national policy context will be discussed.

Richard James is Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne and Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. His research program involves both theoretical and practical investigations into contemporary higher education issues. With Dr Kerri-Lee Krause he currently holds a three year Australian Research Council Discovery Grant to examine the effects of disciplinary cultures on approaches to teaching and learning.

Recent papers and publications

• Engaging with communities: Reconsidering strategies for access and equity in Australian higher education, Newcastle, August 2004
• Understanding prospective student decision-making and the role of marketing in undergraduate education, 'Marketing Education 2002', Melbourne, 21-23 October 2002
• Academic standards and the assessment of student learning: Some current issues in Australian higher education, Prague, 7 October 2002
• The changing expectations of university students and the implications for learning,with David Beckett, Singapore, 13 July 2002
• Equity of participation for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and rural and isolated areas, Submission to the 'Review of Australian Higher Education', 26 June 2002
• How student perspectives challenge conventional marketing theory: The operation of the undergraduate market in higher education and the effects of application and selection processes, Invited presentation to the'Strategic Marketing for Higher Education Conference', 15-16 April 2002
• Understanding prospective student decision-making and the implications for marketing strategies, 'Marketing Higher and Post-Secondary Education', Sydney, 15-17 October 2001
• Students' changing expectations of higher education and the consequences of mismatches with reality, OECD Programme in Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) 'Management responses to changing student expectations', Queensland, 24 September 2001