An Academic Life: A Handbook for New Academics

206 Pages·2010·3.09 MB·English

by  Robert H. Cantwell

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Academic life is complex and adjusting to life as a new academic requires a range of skills and E M A
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abilities to fulfi l the multiple roles the academic must play as researcher, teacher and administrator. I H
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An Academic Life assists in the process of orienting new academics to the nature of academic E A
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life, particularly greater accountability in all aspects of academic life, growth in the numbers of N

academic staff, and increasing demands and expectations from the growing student population. B C D
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This title addresses the key areas of academic work: teaching and learning; research, research A B
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training and publication; administration and community service; and the social and cultural A O
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aspects of academic life. W O
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journey of entering the world of academic life. Any new academic will fi nd this book an invaluable L

resource for conceptualising and contextualising the academic world they are now part of. &

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At one time, every new lecturer thinks, ‘I wish there was a handbook on how to
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be an academic’. With the publication of An Academic Life there fi nally is! The K
case studies add hugely to the accessibility of the theoretical materials and help
A C A D E M I C
to limit the isolation of the new academic feeling, ‘Why does this only happen to
me!’ The book provides the foundational questions a new staff member should
think about when constructing courses, organising their workload and thinking a L i f e
strategically about a long-term academic career. I would highly recommend it. n
DR KATHLEEN BUTLER
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Senior Lecturer, Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Newcastle
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Dr Robert H. Cantwell is a Senior Lecturer Dr Jill J. Scevak is a Senior Lecturer at the
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in Education at the University of Newcastle. University of Newcastle in the discipline of
His research interests lie in the broad fi eld educational and developmental psychology.
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of learning theory and its applications to She is also a registered psychologist in NSW,
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educational and professional settings. a member of the Australian Psychological
His specifi c interests lie in the area of Society (APS) and an executive member
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metacognition and learning, with a focus of the Newcastle branch of the APS. Her
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on how individuals think about and respond research interests are in the fi eld of cognitive

to the complex intellectual and affective psychology and, in particular, individual
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demands of learning and professional differences in the management of cognition,
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practice. metacognition and affect in learning across
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a variety of learning contexts: primary,
secondary, tertiary and professional. e
ISBN 978-0-86431-908-1
9 780864 319081 EDITED BY ROBERT H. CANTWELL & JILL J. SCEVAK
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An Academic Life
a handbook for new academics
edited by
robert h. cantwell
& jill j. scevak
acer Press
First published 2010
by ACER Press, an imprint of
Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd
19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell
Victoria, 3124, Australia
www.acerpress.com.au
[email protected]
Text copyright © Robert H. Cantwell and Jill J. Scevak 2010
Design and typography copyright © ACER Press 2010
This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except under the
conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia
and subsequent amendments, and any exceptions permitted
under the current statutory licence scheme administered by
Copyright Agency Limited (www.copyright.com.au), no part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, transmitted, broadcast or communicated in any form
or by any means, optical, digital, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written
permission of the publisher.
Edited by Maureen O’Keefe
Cover design and typesetting by Mason Design
Cover image © Doug Plummer/Photonica/Getty Images
Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Cantwell, Robert Harley.
Title: An academic life: a handbook for new academics /
Robert H. Cantwell and Jill J. Scevak.
ISBN: 9780864319081 (pbk.)
Subjects: College teaching—Vocational guidance—Australia.
College teachers—Australia.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Scevak, Jill Janina.
Dewey Number: 378.120994
Foreword
I was initially employed in my first academic appointment on a two-year contract
and when I sat in my office I was greeted with two thin manila folders and a few
loose unrelated pages regarding the course I was about to teach. This evidence
was contrary to the information provided during a coffee shop interview, when I
was informed that the units were well developed and organised, and I’d have very
little to prepare! I faced 60 undergraduate students four weeks after this event.
I recall during my first week of this first job being taken aside and given three
pearls of advice in hushed tones some 31 years ago at a Canadian university.
1. Don’t have an affair in your office because the walls are thin and everyone will
know about it! 2. Be careful of the dragon secretary in the front office. 3. Don’t
get too close to students as they will turn on you.
In retrospect, the words of advice and the assurances were the sum total of my
official induction, some may say more like a baptism of fire!
Gone are the days when it was believed that good teachers were born and
not made. And it is said less often these days that university teachers who can’t
teach do research. University academics are familiar with such jibes from guests
at cocktail parties about having extensive holidays, a stress-free and protected
environment, living in an ivory tower, and of students needing to get out and
work in the ‘real’ world. One of the solid contributions of An Academic Life:
A handbook for new academics is that many of these myths are dispensed through
carefully crafted, informative, balanced and timely advice laced with thoughtful
wisdom based on the extensive experience of the 24 Australian and New Zealand
authors.
This book is about the intentionality of practice and attests to the position that
the style, persona, activities and contribution of beginning university academics
can be crafted, shaped through modelling, instruction, supervision, feedback,
encouragement and demonstration. This text also expounds the value of self-
reflection and of planning, the role of motivation and, that one vital characteristic,
personal resourcefulness. Sound scholarship in teaching and research is never
haphazard for it has purpose, intent and is goal directed. The beginning university
academic also needs to be prepared to manage interpersonal obstacles, regular
distractions, occasional red herrings, student discipline and equity issues, appeals
to grades and dealing with non-committed students. All this and more competes
with the mantra of developing a ‘track record’, learning the subtleties of the
discipline and staff whims and outside interests, getting along with support staff
and of surviving probation.
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FOREwORD
An Academic Life: A handbook for new academics represents part of a growing
field of antipodean publications devoted to improving the experience of our
university students, research candidates and their supervisors, and new academ-
ics. The 21 chapters are informative and practical, and are structured around core
components of the academic curriculum vitae: teaching, research, administration
and community involvement. I commend the editors in devising a text that will
be highly beneficial as foundational reading in courses on university teaching and
learning, and induction programs for new academics.
This text offers to the often-struggling new academic a sense of hope, struc-
ture, an understanding of the rhythm of university life and a useful tool that will
serve to set the template for a long and fruitful academic career. There is no doubt
that the first five years of academic life is transformational, over-flowing with
opportunities for intellectual and personal growth, active learning, and a chance
to understand and engage with the political structures within the university
system.
Alongside my two manila folders those years ago I yearned for a companion
text to guide me though, to assist my thinking, support my ideas and to help
me cope with the daily tough decisions that had to be made. An Academic Life: A
handbook for new academics would have been of immense value and will no doubt
well serve the next generation of recently graduated research candidates, and new
and beginning university academics.
Adjunct Professor Carey Denholm
Past Dean and Professor of Graduate Research
Teaching Excellence Awardee and Registered Psychologist
University of Tasmania
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Contents
Foreword iii
About the editors vii
Authors viii
chapter 1 Some introductory thoughts 1
Robert H. Cantwell and Jill J. Scevak
SECTION 1
Stories of new academics
chapter 2 Learning how to be an academic –
The story of a new academic in the sciences 6
Danielle Skropeta
chapter 3 Learning how to be an academic –
The story of a new academic in education 10
Kelly Freebody
SECTION 2
teaching and learning
chapter 4 Aligning intellectual development with
curriculum, instruction and assessment 16
Robert H. Cantwell, Jill J. Scevak and Robert J. Parkes
chapter 5 The nature of academic learning 25
Robert H. Cantwell
chapter 6 Assessment: Principles and practice 35
Gavin T. Brown
chapter 7 Lectures 45
Jill J. Scevak
chapter 8 The tutorial as cognitive apprenticeship:
Developing discipline-based thinking 55
Robert J. Parkes and Nona Muldoon
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CONTENTS
Supporting scholarly tutors to conduct effective tutorials 65
chapter 9
Kathryn Sutherland
Teaching and learning in a laboratory setting 75
chapter 10
Siegbert Schmid and Justin R. Read
Teaching online: Issues and challenges for
chapter 11
on-campus and distance instruction 83
Caroline Steel
Teaching within diversity 97
chapter 12
Nina Burridge and Richard walker
SECTION 3
research and research training
Preparing for a career as a researcher 110
chapter 13
Sid Bourke and Allyson Holbrook
Writing for publication 120
chapter 14
Pamela J. Green and John A. Bowden
Research training: Supervising
chapter 15
and managing research students 130
Pamela J. Green and John A. Bowden
SECTION 4
administration and community service
Academic administration: Becoming involved 140
chapter 16
Stephen Crump
Professional activities and community service 150
chapter 17
Clare McBeath
SECTION 5
academic workplace
Academic life: An interpersonal dimension 160
chapter 18
Jane Goodman-Delahunty and Ben walker
A lifeline for emerging academics 173
chapter 19
Dawn Garbett and Belinda Tynan
Academic work: A developmental perspective 182
chapter 20
Gerlese Åkerlind
Some concluding thoughts 192
chapter 21
Jill J. Scevak and Robert H. Cantwell
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About the editors
Dr Robert H. Cantwell is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of
Newcastle. His research interests lie in the broad field of learning theory and its
applications to educational and professional settings. His specific interests lie in
the area of metacognition and learning, with a focus on how individuals think
about and respond to the complex intellectual and affective demands of learning
and professional practice.
Dr Jill J. Scevak is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle in the
discipline of Educational and Developmental Psychology. Jill is also a registered
psychologist in NSW, a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS),
and an executive member of the Newcastle branch of the APS. Her research interests
are in the field of cognitive psychology: in particular, individual dif ferences in the
management of cognition, metacognition and affect in learning across a variety
of learning contexts (primary, secondary, tertiary and professional).
vii
Authors
(listed alphabetically)
Gerlese Åkerlind is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for
Educational Development and Academic Methods (CEDAM) at the Australian
National University (ANU). CEDAM supports the enhancement of educational
quality and standards at ANU, including educational development for academic
staff. Gerlese’s research and scholarship primarily focuses on the nature, and
changing nature, of higher education and academic work. This includes inves-
tigations of the academic experience of teaching, research, academic free dom,
academic development and career development for early-career academics. She is
an honorary Research Associate of the Oxford Learning Institute, University of
Oxford, and a member of the Editorial Boards for the journals Educational Research
Review, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and the International Journal of
Researcher Development.
Sid Bourke is a Professor in Education at the University of Newcastle, and
currently teaches research methods to graduate students and supervises several
PhD students. He has been responsible for international and several national
projects, including projects supported by Australian Research Council (ARC)
Discovery and Linkage grants. Recent publications have focused on PhD
completion, attrition and thesis assessment, and his current major studies are
concerned with the criteria thesis examiners use, and the metacognitive attri butes
of PhD candidates.
John A. Bowden is Professor Emeritus at RMIT University and Adjunct
Professor at Swinburne University where he collaborates with Pam Green in the
Postgraduate Research Education Program. He has over 150 publications including
The University of Learning: Beyond quality and competence (with Ference Marton)
and Doing Developmental Phenomenography (edited with Pam Green).
Gavin T. Brown is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department
of Psychological Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research
interests are in the psychology of assessment with a major focus on measuring
viii
AUTHORS
academic performance, affective attitudes, and investigating how students’ and
teachers’ understandings of assessment affect practices and outcomes. His book
on this last topic is Conceptions of Assessment: Understanding what assessment means
to teachers and students, published by Nova Science Publishers in New York.
Nina Burridge is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her main research interests
centre on Indigenous education and, more recently, ethno-cultural diversity and
education. Her work explores the challenges and opportunities faced by educational
institutions and their related communities as the impacts of globalisation and
ethno-cultural diversity become a reality for many countries.
Robert H. Cantwell is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at the
University of Newcastle. His research is in the area of learning theory and its
applications to higher educational and professional settings. He has published
widely in many aspects of student and professional learning.
Stephen Crump is the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of the Central Coast
Campuses and a Professor in Education at the University of Newcastle. He is an
internationally renowned scholar in educational policy. His recent research has
been in regional and remote area education, with a focus on both the development
of e-learning capability and the identification and development of employment-
related skills in regional areas. These have been supported by a number of ARC
grants.
Kelly Freebody is a Lecturer in Drama and English Education in the Faculty of
Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. Her teaching and research
interests include drama; secondary English; literacy; social justice; and quali tative
research methods, particularly conversation analysis and membership
categorisation analysis.
Dawn Garbett is a Principal Lecturer and Associate Dean, Teaching and
Learning in the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She
is an award-winning teacher educator and foundation member of Ako Aotearoa
Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence. Her research interests focus on en han-
cing the quality of teaching and learning for tertiary students.
Jane Goodman-Delahunty is a Professor at Charles Sturt University in the
School of Psychology and Australian Graduate School of Policing. A former
President of the American Psychology-Law Society and Editor of Psychology,
Public Policy and Law (2001–2006), she is a Commissioner with the NSW Law
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