Assessment Presentation and Submission Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines when you submit each assignment:

• Allow a left and right-hand margin of at least 2cm in all assignments.
• Please type all assignments using 12-point font and 1.5 spacing.
• All assessments must be submitted through Turnitin in .doc or .pdf format
• It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that all assessments are successfully submitted through Turnitin.
• Faculty assignment cover sheets are NOT required.

Draft Submissions & Turnitin Originality Reports

• Students may use Turnitin’s Originality Report as a learning tool to improve their academic writing if this option is made available in the unit.
• Students are strongly encouraged to upload a draft copy of each assessment to Turnitin at least one week prior to the due date to obtain an Originality Report.
• The Originality Report provides students with a similarity index that may indicate if plagiarism has occurred. Students will be able to make amendments to their drafts prior to their final submission on the due date.
• Generally, one Originality Report is generated every 24 hours up to the due date.

Please note:

• Students should regularly save a copy of all assignments before submission,
• Students are responsible for checking that their submission has been successful and has been submitted by the due date and time.
• https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration

Assignment extensions and late penalties

• In general, there should be no need for extensions except through illness or misadventure that would be categorised as serious and unavoidable disruption according to the University definition of same, see:  https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration

Applications for extensions must be made via AskMQ according to the Special Consideration policy. Extensions can only be granted if they meet the Special 

• Considerations policy and are submitted via https://ask.mq.edu.au/. This will ensure consistency in the consideration of such requests is maintained.

• Late submissions without extension will receive a penalty of 5% reduction of the total possible mark for each day late (including weekends and public holidays). You are reminded that submitting even just 1 day late could be the difference between passing and failing a unit. Late penalties are applied by unit convenors or their delegates after tasks are assessed.

• No assessable work will be accepted after the return/release of marked work on the same topic. If a student is still permitted to submit on the basis of unavoidable disruption, an alternative topic may be set.

• Students should keep an electronic file of all assessments. Claims regarding "lost" assessments cannot be made if the file cannot be produced. It is also advisable to keep an electronic file of all drafts and the final submission on a USB untouched/unopened after submission. This can be used to demonstrate easily that the assessment has not been amended after the submission date.

Requesting a re-assessment of an assignment

If you have evidence that your task has been incorrectly assessed against the grade descriptors you can request a re-mark. To request a re-mark you need to contact the unit convenor within 7 days of the date of return of the assignment and provide a detailed assessment of your script against the task criteria. Evidence from your assignment must be provided to support your judgements.

Note: Failed assessments cannot be re-marked as they are all double-marked as a part of the moderation process.

Please note: The outcome of a re-mark may be a higher/lower or unchanged grade. Grades are standards referenced and effort is NOT a criterion.

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University policy on grading

Criteria for awarding grades for assessment tasks

Assignments will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the University's Grading Policy. The following descriptive criteria are included for your information.

Descriptive Criteria for awarding grades in the unit

In order to meet the unit outcomes and successfully pass this unit, students must make a genuine attempt at all assessment tasks. Where any submitted assessment task is considered to be unsatisfactory in this regard, the highest possible final grade that can be awarded for the unit will be 45.

Students will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the policy: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment-in-effect-from-session-2-2016

The following generic grade descriptors provide university-wide standards for awarding final grades.

Withdrawing from this UG Unit

If you are considering withdrawing from this unit, please seek academic advice via https://ask.mq.edu.au before doing so as this unit may be a co-requisite or prerequisite for units in the following sessions and may impact on your progression through the degree.

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Each week, EDUC107 has a  2-hour pre-recorded lecture, with lecture slides and recordings available via iLearn.

External students are required to attend two on-campus days Sat 16/3 and Sat 25/5. For details, see  https://timetables.mq.edu.au/2019/

Lecture 1  

Introduction to EDUC 107. What is Education?  (Dr Jenny Barr)  Access iLearn  Familiarise yourself with unit content

Central to the unit EDUC107 is the question ‘what is education?’ In answering this question, we draw on four pillars of educational thought: psychology, philosophy, history, and education. Together these disciplines allow us to answer questions about who the student is, the purpose and goals of education, the promotion of a good society and 21st century citizenship, the influence of the external context, and implications for the teacher.      

MODULE I: The Student

  Lecture 2  

The Student through Time  (Dr Penny van Bergen)  Read Mayer (2001)

Psychology, the study of human behaviour, allows us to understand who our students are and how they develop. Throughout its short 130-year history, multiple schools of thought have risen to prominence: each with a different philosophical focus. We take a step back in time and consider concepts of the child and of learning from the points of view of three key paradigms: Behaviourism, Humanism, and Cognitivism. 

  Lecture 3 

Cognitive Development: Piaget and Vygotsky  (Dr Penny van Bergen)  Watch short clip on iLearn

We investigate the contributions of two famous psychologists: Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget proposed a stage-based model of cognitive development in which children acquire an increasingly sophisticated conceptual understanding through exploration of the environment. Critically, he proposed that children are not ‘mini-adults’: rather than knowing less than adults, children instead think and reason differently. Whilst Piaget’s focus was on the individual, Vygotsky was instead interested in the way in which cognitive development occurs within the social and cultural context, with teachers and others scaffolding the learning of the learner. We examine the pros and cons of each theory and assess their importance within education today.

  Lecture 4  

Cognitive Development: Intelligence  (Dr Penny van Bergen)  Read Humphrey et al (2007) Read Rickert et al (2014)

The study of intelligence has a long and chequered history within educational psychology. Initially used by eugenicists to justify arguments of racial differences, intelligence testing has also long been used to determine educational proficiency and potential. We examine competing definitions of intelligence and their implications for education. 

Lecture 5

Social and Moral Development  (Dr Penny van Bergen)  Read O’Flaherty & Doyle (2014)

We examine theories of students’ social and moral development. Social development has been shown to predict students’ future success, and is a very important topic for teachers who today face the rise of social networking (Facebook, webchat, sms) as well as the more ‘traditional’ problems of bullying and peer relationships.    

  Lecture 6

Constructivism  (Dr Mitch Parsell)  Read Yilmaz (2008)  Read Fox (2001)

Constructivism is a theory of learning or epistemology which sees learning as an active, constructive process whereby the learner constructs knowledge and meaning from their experiences and through social interactions.  We explore the different approaches within constructivist theory and the implications of constructivist approaches for teaching and learning.

  Lecture 7

A History of Education (Dr Mitch Parsell)   Read excerpt from Barcan (1980) A History of Australian Education

We are going back to the future to learn about some foundational concepts in education, where they came from and why they arose, and how they have influenced teacher education over time. You will be introduced to the ideas of the “hidden curriculum”, socialisation, meritocracy, social mobility and competition – just to mention a few – and will learn how these phenomena play into what schools teach and what our children learn. We will draw on some of the giants in the field to place “education” in a historical context in order to better understand why schools and teaching and learning look like they do today.    

MODULE II: The Context

 Lecture 8

Who’s in? Who’s out? Schooling and Social Advantage and Disadvantage (Dr Jenny Barr)  Read Marks (2016)

We examine the role schooling plays in reproducing social advantage and disadvantage. We look at the impact that neo-liberal market reforms, particularly increased choice and competition, have on deepening inequities linked to identity categories including social class, race and gender. In light of the National Goals in Education (Melbourne Declaration, 2008) particular focus is given to low SES, NESB and indigenous communities. Finally, we explore approaches to schooling that work to challenge exclusionary processes experienced by marginalised students and their families.   

  Lecture 9   The Politics of Education (Dr Jenny Barr)  Read Connell (2013) Read Mills & Gale (2002)

We take a look at education in the present, from an international perspective, by tracing in more detail the globalisation of “neo-liberal” policy experiments first trialled in the United States and United Kingdom. Recent developments in Australia (e.g., NAPLAN, the National Curriculum, My School, and A-E reporting), and their effects for children, teachers and schools will be discussed. Questions include: What is stigmatising about league tables and whom does this most affect? What is wrong with "teaching to the test" and why might this occur? Why would poor results cause problems for schools?

  MODULE III: The Teacher

  Lecture 10 

Learning Communities (Dr Mitch Parsell) No set reading

We examine the importance of learning communities to education and teaching. We begin by unpacking the notion of a learning community and examining the social dimension of learning. We then look briefly at two specific forms of learning communities: communities of practice and communities of enquiry. Finally we examine how communities can be harnessed in the classroom to support student learning.