Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemDeveloping and validating an operationalisable model of critical thinking for assessment in different cultures( 2022)Critical thinking has become an educational priority worldwide, as it is considered to play a fundamental role in problem-solving, decision-making and creativity. Yet the evidence is mixed about whether and how our education system produces good critical thinkers, and this is particularly evident in studies of the relative performance of Chinese and Western students. This study began with the assumption that the mixed evidence might in part be understood as resulting from a mismatch between the expectations of critical thinkers and the model of critical thinking adopted for its assessment. A review of literature suggested that the mismatch might stem from difficulties in operationalising the current theories of critical thinking in assessments. Drawing on a range of multidisciplinary studies of critical thinking, an operationalisable model of critical thinking was developed that includes a cognitive skill dimension and an epistemological belief dimension. Three assessment instruments were designed to validate the multidimensional model. The two dimensions of critical thinking were assessed separately as per existing assessments practices, and in an integrated manner. Performances on the three assessments were examined based on the data collected from a convenience sample of 480 higher education students in Australia (N=233) and China (N=247). Rasch analysis was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the three instruments. Latent regression analysis with Rasch modelling and latent profile analysis were conducted to compare the performance patterns of critical thinking competency between the sampled groups. The results showed that the instruments were reliable for the measurement of the intended construct model and performed in an unbiased manner across the sampled groups. The results produced by the two approaches (separate and integrated assessment) were consistent. The two approaches can provide useful information for different purposes. It was found that the students in the Chinese sample performed at a lower level than the students in the Australian sample on all of the assessment instruments, and the two samples showed different performance patterns between the groups in the two components of the model. The study concluded that the operationalisable model provides a way of understanding conflicting evidence about patterns of critical thinking found in different cultures, and may inform tailored strategies for teaching critical thinking.
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ItemDigital translanguaging practices: A study of multilingual learners in an online higher education environment( 2022)In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the growth in online learning has been exponential. This research investigated the learning experiences of multilingual students with varying English language proficiencies pursuing online higher education courses in English. It focused on an academic writing experience in English during which students deployed digital tools of their choice (e.g., online dictionaries, digital translators, and search engines) and other resources such as their mother tongue to mitigate their linguistic issues. The study draws on literature on digital translanguaging (Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno, & Garcia, 2018), which is centrally about the use of multilingual and digital resources for text comprehension and production. Research highlights that these resources provide affordances to students to self-resolve lexical and grammatical challenges. However, these affordances have been examined mainly in school and out-of-school contexts (social networking sites such as Facebook) (Schreiber, 2015; Kim, 2017; Vogel et al., 2018). Not much is yet known about how they impact writers in higher education contexts. This study contributes by developing new understandings about the extent to which digital translanguaging practices influence writers in an online higher education context by exploring the affordances that facilitate and constraints that might inhibit their academic text production in English. Drawing on multiple-case study design features and a critical methodological perspective, data were collected from a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) environment. Since the participants were from different parts of the world, data were gathered using online research methodologies such as synchronous videoconferencing technology and screen sharing techniques to trace moment-to-moment online search practices and navigation paths during the writing process to identify linguistic and digital resources students used and how they deployed them to support their writing in English. Data were analysed using a digital translanguaging lens to examine the affordances and constraints their online literacy practices provided for multilingual writers. The findings revealed that digital translanguaging both extended and accelerated students’ capacity to produce texts in English beyond their existing repertoire of knowledge. The findings also uncovered that despite the affordances of digital technology and multilingual resources, challenges arose when students did not have grammatical, pragmatic, and strategic aspects of communicative competence, which continued to constrain their ability to communicate intended ideas competently to the level they perceived was expected and acceptable for the target academic audience. The study argues for creating more inclusive higher education spaces through strategy-based approaches that better mobilise students’ multilingual resources to provide greater opportunities for improved academic outcomes and equity in online higher education environments. Implications include strategies to better tap into multilingual strengths and mobilise digital resources to promote online learning.
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ItemInvestigating the student experience of internationalization at an Australian university( 2020)This thesis explores the student experience of an internationalized Australian university through the lens of Internationalization at Home (IaH) practices. Over the last quarter of a century, Australian universities have adapted to an increasingly globalized world by implementing comprehensive internationalization strategies that make the universities more desirable to and more applicable within a global society. A substantial portion of these strategies depend on student-centered actions and activities, such as students interacting with and learning from peers from diverse backgrounds. However, the implementation and effectiveness of these IaH strategies have faced consistent challenges, including negative responses among the student body: resentment towards peers, a lack of intercultural interaction, and consistent frustration with multicultural groupwork. As students’ responses pose some of the key challenges to IaH, understanding students’ experiences of IaH practices would offer helpful insight into how to move forward with IaH. However, research into how students experience an internationalized university is limited, despite the significant role students play in the implementation and success of IaH practices. There is a particular lack of understanding around domestic students’ conceptualizations and experiences of internationalized universities, even though they comprise the majority of the Australian university student population. This thesis aims to provide better understanding of the challenges facing IaH aims by investigating students’ experience of an internationalized university, incorporating both international and domestic students’ experiences. The research study presented in this thesis is guided by the main research question, “What influences students’ experience of an internationalized university?” The study adopts a single-institution case study methodology, and three different faculties within the institution are included to consider different teaching contexts and student populations. A mixed-methods approach is taken, and data are collected through an electronic student survey, one-on-one student interviews, interviews with the heads of each of the three bachelor’s programs, and analysis of university website messaging about the student experience. Findings suggest that students’ experience is influenced primarily by a misalignment between their conceptualizations and expectations of an internationalized university on one hand and their experiences of that internationalized university on the other. Students expect that an internationalized university will offer frequent, natural interaction, often in the form of intercultural interaction with peers or in-class discussion; yet, they do not often find this to be true. This thesis argues for a reframing of the role of interpersonal interaction in shaping students’ internationalized university experience, primarily because it predominates students’ conceptualizations and expectations of an internationalized university. The thesis further argues that such misalignment may partially explain students’ resistance to certain IaH practices. It is thereby proposed that incorporating more interpersonal and intercultural interaction into the formal curriculum and reducing structural barriers to interaction would improve students’ experience of internationalized universities and better support the aims of IaH.