Learning & Growing Together

On the 12th of August, I discussed with  Study Support and library  Team this article titled “A Safe Return to Campus in Times of COVID-19: A Survey Study among University Personnel to Inform Decision Makers”. I was interested to link this article topic  which focuses on staff return to campus as it links us with our thoughts, and experience of return to campus with our students in the current term of 202260. It is our first term to have students on campus after more than two years of online learning. The centres took the hybrid approach to deliver services. Staff shared positive sides as well as negative sides of return to campus. Social interaction, seeing colleagues and students, work on a physical spaces, safety preparations on campus were some of the positive things we have discussed. On the other side we looked at challenges that staff facing when working on campus such as travelling, waste time and money and other health issues such as winter waves of COVID.

Back to the article details: the data were collected between 11 June and 28 June 2021. This study showed that, while most personnel (94.7%) were already vaccinated or willing to do so, not all personnel did feel safe to return to campus in September 2021. Over half of the respondents (58%) thought that the university is a safe place to return to work when the new academic year starts. However, the remainder of personnel felt unsafe or were uncertain for various reasons such as meeting in large groups or becoming infected. Moreover, when returning to campus, employees stated that they would require some time to reacclimate to their former work culture. The group who felt relatively more unsafe indicated that returning in September was too risky and that they worried about being infected. They wanted the safety guidelines to still be in force. On the other hand, the “safe” group stated safely returning to be “certainly possible” and trusted that others would still stick to the prevention guidelines. The findings led to practical recommendations for the University Board as they were preparing for organizing research and teaching for the upcoming academic year in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief intervention was developed: a webinar in which the data were linked to the board’s plans for safe returning. This study demonstrates that university boards may use research among personnel to develop adequate measures promoting safety and feelings of safety among personnel in similar future situations.

More information about the discussion about return to campus can be found in the recording here:

Recording

Websites for Friday’s meeting 26.08.2022 – Miranda

The three websites that are within the Websites for 26.08.2022, above, are enclosed and provided a lively form for discussion last Friday.

Starting with the first discussion on students coming back to universities by Peter Hurley from the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University published on February 14, 2022, it was noted that they are coming back, but nowhere near the numbers which were pre-pandemic. Some interesting statistics were also provided and I asked people to provide the latest information and statistics. He also says that “following the 2011 Knight Review, many international students have been able to apply for a post-study visa. This lets them work in Australia for between one and five years after finishing their course” and that “competitor countries are also using post-study work rights to attract a bigger share of international enrolments”. This was especially important since many international students work in the low-paid industries such as cleaning, bar attendants,  waiters, and aged and disabled carers. Elaine, provided some information and statistics, and referred to the information sent by Monique previously, in the previous week or two.

The next article, was from the Punjab in India and was published on June 2 in 2021, was on the students who were able to obtain a visa easily, due to their academic grades which were high and were in the fields that were needed here in Australia – that is, doctors. That article was more a inside look into those kinds of students.

The third article, was from Andrew Norton, from the Australian National University and was published on February 11 2022, which provided a lot of information and statistics and also some graphs to demonstrate what he was saying. It was a more complex look into the situation here in Australia, and the changes that are taking place. He was saying that students were coming back to Australia to study, and that, because of the changes to the immigration by the government, students were now able to work 40 or more hours per week, which was very encouraging for Indian and Nepalese students. However, not as inviting for Chinese students, whose numbers were far lower.  He also looked at job losses within the various universities, and he also says that “the long COVID of university employment will not clear for some time”.

Overall, the articles created quite a bit of discussion regarding this situation of the post-COVID 19 and what is being changed due to it and the various changes that have occurred because of it and the different variants of COVID that have resulted from the original. Most of the people in the room participated in the discussion, and Elaine and Seham had quite a lot to say about the situation, as did some of the others. It is notable that Monique was not present at the meeting, due to her being on annual leave.

Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/pN34FNbOKXc

What makes athletes, entrepreneurs, and some of the most successful people in the world successful?

The answer is – Mindset. Particularly, a growth mindset.

“The key to success is not simply effort, focus or resilience, rather these are by-products of having a growth mindset”. – Eduardo Briceno

Often success is associated with the belief that you need to have intelligence or talent to be successful and perform well at something. Some people believe that they have ingrained certain abilities, and that poor performance reflects an inability to succeed. This is known as a fixed mindset (FM). Contrastingly, there are those whom when faced with setbacks or challenges embrace these as an opportunistic moment for personal growth and further development of their skills and abilities. These thinkers are considered to possess a growth mindset (GM). American chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin asserted; “The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability, we will be brittle in the face of adversity”. In other words, if we believe that we are limited by our current inabilities to perform well in certain areas than we limit ourselves from opportunistic growth and are less resilient to setbacks.

This week’s L&G discussion focused on understanding these two mindset types, and how they can affect performance. In his TED Talk, Eduardo Briceno spoke of the power of belief, and how a growth mindset helped Waitzkin learn to successfully compete with the world’s best performing chess competitors and use it as a formula to achieve continued success in his life.

Eduardo explains that those with a (FM) see effort as a bad thing that only people with low capabilities need. When they are met with failure or setbacks, they conclude they are incapable of achieving successful outcomes and this results in low motivation and withdrawal. This is perpetuated by their concern that they will be judged by others. In contrast, those with a (GM) focus more on learning and see effort as a smart approach to grow and develop one’s skills. They view setbacks and failure as a part of personal growth and choose to learn from these experiences, often finding a way forward and overcoming their limitations.

Dweck & Mueller (1998) divided children into two groups and assigned each with a set of puzzles. They found that children who received a fixed mindset praise (FMP) which associated the child’s skill with being smart resulted in poorer performance and lower confidence in ability than those children receiving a growth mindset praise (GMP) which focused on their efforts. This is because the (FMP) portrays intelligence and abilities as fixed qualities, whereas the (GMP) focused on the efforts and process. The researchers also found that when introducing children with the choice between selecting a harder puzzle and an easier puzzle, the (FMP) children picked the easier puzzle over the challenging puzzle, whereas the (GMP) children opted for the harder puzzle. Finally, when allowing children, the opportunity to score their individual performance, the (FMP) children lied over 3 times more about their performance.

This study showcases as a good example of student mindset and performance and its results yield similar experiences to the mindsets of current international students that attend study support and counselling support services. Our experience of helping these students is challenged when students are stuck in a fixed mindset and fall into patterns of avoidance, demotivation and procrastination, whereas students exhibiting a growth mindset tend to progress with their personal development and academic skills.

Eduardo Briceno shares 3 tips people can follow to increase a growth mindset and become successful.

1. Recognise that the brain is malleable and is capable of change.
2. Learn about deliberate practice and how to develop your abilities.
3. Listen to your fixed mindset voice, and when you hear it, talk back with a growth mindset voice. (i.e. – If you hear you can’t, add YET to the end of that sentence)

L&G group reflective discussion: The discussion on Fixed mindsets vs growth mindsets was fruitful and instigated many in the group to share their own personal experiences of success stories with students. An interesting point shared by Peter was the notion that a fixed mindset is not always a negative thing as people following diets need to have a strict fixed mindset to stay disciplined and achieve their goals. However, the crux is: If we are to realise our potential, we must start thinking differently, and realising that we are not chained or limited to our current capabilities. Having a growth mindset allows us to do this.

On Friday 1.4.22 the study support and library team met in the learning and growing session. The article we discussed tittles: As international students return, let’s not return to the status quo of isolation and exploitation. Points discussed, Links to article , research, recordings Points  summarised below:

• The article focuses on findings from research conducted by India Institute (based in Melbourne Uni) researching international students’ motivations to study in Australia. 11 universities involved in the research and interviews were conducted with students and stakeholders.
•  Research shows helping Indian students to build strong connections with other students, as well as employers, makes them more likely to have a productive and fulfilling time in Australia and to find suitable work when they graduate.
• Research shows Int students are much more likely than domestic students to experience social isolation, financial insecurity, and mental health issues.
• One of the most striking findings was that those who had strong social connections with other Indian students had a much more productive experience than those who did not.
• When students with strong social connections did experience hardships, other international students were usually their most crucial supports.
• During COVID-19 lockdowns, these students shared vital information through WhatsApp about where and how to get financial support and food.
• International students who were connected with each other were also more likely to build connections with domestic students.
• Challenges and opportunities
  • The report argues that international students’ experiences will be much more productive and fulfilling when they have strong connections with each other.
  • Another key finding is that international students with a strong social network are much more likely to find suitable employment while studying and after graduating.
  • Some students reported being underpaid and exploited in part-time jobs and felt there was little they could do about it. This was especially true of those who had recently arrived in Australia and did not have strong social connections.

  Graduates with strong social connections also had more success getting jobs related to their degrees.

• Actions and recommendations

• Study Support will organise a meeting with career team to discuss ways of connecting students with employers
• Study support is in the process of discussing retune to campus , services and activities and better ways to reconnect with students on campus as well as online
• Student engagement team should inform their plan to rebuild the students’ relations ships with each other and with staff.
• Taking in consideration the rise of COVID cases in Australia, focus on social cohesion and engagement strategies for all students studying in different modes
• Find ways to improve international students’ experience of building new skills that match their interests and Australian skills needs.
• Australian universities and VET institutions should align social media, websites and other digital platforms to create opportunities for prospective, current and former students in Australia and India to connect to strengthen the recruitment process.
•  Australian universities and VET institutions should provide pre-departure pathways for enrolled students to link into digital networks to facilitate their arrival in Australia. 3. Australian universities and VET institutions should support Indian student mentorship programs to assist new Indian students navigate the challenges of living and studying in Australia.

Australian universities and VET institutions should work with the Indian business diaspora to assist Indian students to connect with potential employers and gain work experience.

Recording is here

The article: Higher education must reinvent itself to meet the needs of the world today. Enter the distributed university.  Published 25 February 2022. Author: Richard F. Heller – University of Newcastle.

The link: Higher education must reinvent itself to meet the needs of the world today. Enter the distributed university

The session today was quite lively, with most people contributing something. I was hoping that the others would provide an example of where CSU fitted in with it all, but it did not happen.

However, lots of different ideas came up and some people provided arguments against the ideas presented as some aspects were problematic, and I had considered those also. Ideas such as the problems of this outside Australia and the time and internet strength differences; the different value systems in countries outside the West and the notion of inculcating Western values; and one person was concerned about the demands on lecturers with the idea of voluntary work, together with the idea that universities need to be collaborative and not competitive. A person brought up the idea that collaboration was unnecessary as universities cannot adopt a single policy, because who would be supplying that policy? Many of the thoughts I had about the subject were brought up by various members of staff, and I and others agreed with those who brought up the different and conflicting ideas.

In all, quite a few of us thought that the ideas were quite idealistic but may not work in practice.

The article: The role of student–university value alignment in international student acculturation in Australia

The recording: https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/play/Jp4rJ244d91ZPVYQW5YN_YSHb88XbuH0hAPYhwuZpJ2wcbayyGK23cBJIil1E0-9sLF8P2gSIh2urHE-.rL7b1fJOvaNDXXDJ?continueMode=true

In today’s session we discussed how university values and student values impact each other and what bearing that has on a student’s acculturation into the university community.

Some interesting discussions arose, such as the fact that very few of us actually knew the CSU values, and how the values that we transmit to students most explicitly are more around academic integrity rather than the mission or goal of the institution itself.

Luke mentioned, that as a CSU student he was not aware of CSU values playing a core role in his studies, but all members acknowledged that there is a large emphasis on championing indigenous students and knowledge. These seemed to be less broadly disseminated amongst the Study Centres, which have their own set of Study Group values.

Another point was raised that in fact we do not know the intrinsic values held by the students, nor do we have a firm grasp on their understanding of the values we espouse.

Belinda mentioned that students often understand ‘values’ in the same light as ‘conditions’ in as much as it impacts their VISA and study rights. For example, doing the wrong thing may be seen as a moral trespass but more importantly it can lead to the invalidation of their study rights. She also mentioned that students’ values are often threatened due to the pressures of maintaining a steady income. They may feel pressured to do things that they cannot unequivocally state aligns with their values, but still puts food on their own table, as well as providing for relatives overseas.

This ties in to the perceived transactional nature of education, where students see universities as offering a product that they buy that helps them attain a goal, as opposed to a goal in itself. Education for education’s sake is perhaps a luxury that only those who are financially stable can afford – most of our students do not fall within this category and pursue education as a means to an extrinsic goal – not for self-betterment in itself.

The take-away is that we as staff do not know what students value, and they do not know what the institutions values are either. If students can be engaged in a discussion about where these two meet they may feel a stronger sense of connection to the institution and feel less inclined to see it as a purely transactional engagement.

On 14th of January the Study Support Team and Library Team discussed the Conversation Article titled “Australia’s strategy to revive international education is right to aim for more diversity” .

The main discussion of the article is the new Australian strategy for international education 2021-2030 announced by federal government on the 25^th of last Nov (links are below). The main focus of the discussion is on how will Australian international education providers meet the five pillars of the plan especially diversification of students’ cohorts. Many points were discussed here. I will summarise these in the following points :

Thanks all for attending.  While I was unsure how the conversation would go given the sidestep from our typical material, I must say I was quite pleased with the result.

https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1177/1477878516656563

A quick introduction to the premise of the article; indoctrination to most is the delivery of information and having it accepted uncritically by the learners.  The author observes the extremes of indoctrination, exemplified in terror, force, coercion or psychological manipulation of those unprepared to handle the information and accepted it at face value without questioning.  This is, it is claimed, how most people see indoctrination but it is actually well beyond basic indoctrination.  Indoctrination has a tendency to target the beliefs of the learner rather than the knowledge they receive.

Particularly socially today, there are very polarised views on many issues.  Monique brought up the topic of critical race theory, where a number of the participants voiced their disapproval of the idea, justifying their position with the thought that it creates groups where no groups need to exist, however particularly in the USA it appears to be more commonplace and there are many that are against the forced delivery of this theory with no contrary perspectives provided.  Information such as evolution is delivered in schools as an idea that represents the best description we have for the observed process, exemplifying the targeting of the knowledge base of the students.  Contrary to this, ideas such as CRT, Neo Marxism and similar ideas tend to focus more on the individuals belief system, not to mention vilification in the event someone disagrees with the concepts.  Of all things that are currently seen as spectrums, it does appear that socio-political views are not, which is by definition indoctrinal through force or social pressure.

Monique posed a hypothetical to the group that she had encountered previously involving the moral value of a youtuber dropping money in front of a homeless person and filming their behaviour after the event.  Do they return the money or keep it?  Perspectives on the morality of this action were varied as the youtuber would likely profit from the recording, as well as dehumanise the homeless person by treating them as a commodity, particularly should they opt to keep the money dropped.  Some saw the act as positive as the homeless person received what they likely needed badly.  Others saw it as reprehensible for the usage of the homeless person for personal gain.  This is an example of varied views where no perspective is objectively superior, and I made a comment that summarised my mindset on the matter: if you think you know definitively which perspective is correct, you likely haven’t thought about it enough.

We discussed another example of morality in generations past with the application of moral values onto other racial groups.  The example provided involved the intent to prove negative racial stereotypes (namely an inherently cheating nature) by asking an individual to hit a target with a bow.  Acknowledging they weren’t the best archer within their community, they opted to enlist the aid of the individual that could make this claim instead.  While the conductors of this test saw this as validation of their claim, all that was really happening was that the individual was simply accessing the best tools available in order to complete the objective they were given.  While not racially driven, the same mindset can still apply a certain objectivity to addressing tasks when that same may not be the first approach that comes to mind for everyone.  One of us provided the example of a student with low confidence in the acquisition of academic articles enlisting a friend to locate those articles in their stead.  To many this would be treading very closely to the realm of questionable academic integrity, but to the student, this was nothing more than using the resources available to them in order to complete the task.  After all, supposedly the writing and synthesis was done independently.

Ultimately, the food for thought for this discussion when applied to the higher education setting is mindfulness when delivering information, particularly when certain ideas are clearly contentious.  Is the way we do things objectively more correct than another way?

Zoom Recording 28/1/2022