Building Staff Capacity through Reflecting on Collaborative Development of Embedded Academic Literacies Curricula

Abstract

Increasingly universities aim to provide students with opportunities to graduate with skills ready to perform in the workplace. However, workplace-based opportunities for students enrolled in foreign policy subjects are more limited due to the diplomatic and sensitive political nature of the professional work. Thus there exists a need for higher education institutions teaching foreign policy courses in generalist degrees to create innovative solutions to enable student experience of professional foreign policy practice. In this article we analyse our Australian foreign policy dual strategy teaching initiative where we deploy in-person simulations enabling students to develop both their discipline specific foreign policy knowledge and gain insights in, and experience with, professional competencies and non-technical skills. Student, industry, and staff participant feedback demonstrates the benefits of the simulations for both discipline specific learning and professional skills development.

Employability Learning and Teaching Research: A Twenty Year Structured Narrative Review

“…Employability pedagogy is grounded in constructivist learning theory, as noted by Dickie and Robinson (2021), Bayerlein (2020), Low et al (2021), andFirn (2015), which posits that individuals construct knowledge through their active reflection on their own experiences (Jadallah, 2000). Other, closely related, learning theories that the JUTLP literature drew on to study student employability included experiential learning (Dean et al, 2020b;Durham et al, 2020;Kelton & Kingsmill, 2016;Mueller et al 2022;Perrin, 2014, in USA;Savage & Healy, 2019;Smith et al, 2023, in USA;Villarroel et al, 2020, in Chile), service learning Ramsaroop & Petersen, 2020, in South Africa), and socio-cultural perspectives on learning Heron, 2019, in UK).…”

“…In addition, networking is commonly identified as an important attribute for employability success to enhance teamwork and enable professional development (Table 2). Bandaranaike, 2018;Boyd et al, 2023, in UK;Gallagher et al, 2023;Gouda-Vossos et al, 2023;Hadiyanto et al, 2021;Hayes & Cejnar, 2020;Julien et al, 2012;Kelton and Kingsmill, 2016;Porkodi et al, 2023, in Oman;Ramsaroop & Petersen, 2020, in South Africa;Sarmiento et al, 2020;Sonnenschein and Ferguson, 2020, in Professional competencies and identity Clanchy et al, 2021;Coulson & Homewood, 2016;Dean et al, 2020a;Durham et al, 2020;Hargreaves, 2016;Jones et al, 2016;Low et al, 2021;Ramsaroop & Petersen, 2020;Savage & Healy, 2019;Villarroel et al, 2020,…”

“…WIL and reflective practice enable integration of theory and practice to develop nuanced knowledge and skills in a variety of professions, including teaching (Ramsaroop & Petersen, 2020) and medicine (Hargreaves, 2016). Real-life scenarios, project-based learning, case studies, role-plays and simulations incorporating cooperative learning pedagogies and teamwork assessment tasks can promote application of theory to practice while developing various soft skills and can potentially be delivered in person or online (Kelton & Kingsmill, 2016;Low et al, 2021;Mueller et al, 2022;Perrin, 2014;Tsiligiris & Bowyer, 2021).…”

Systematic Review of Learning Generic Skills in Higher Education—Enhancing and Impeding Factors

“…Some studies found that games (Fitó-Bertran et al, 2015;Hermnandez-Lara et al, 2018), role playing (El Tantawi et al, 2014), business simulations (Kelton and Kingsmill, 2016;Levant et al, 2016;Buil et al, 2018), and online tools or competitions (Viviers, 2016;Abdulwahed and Hasna, 2017) enhanced the learning of generic skills. Some studies showed that different kinds of work-integrated learning environments enhanced the learning of generic skills (e.g., Jackson, 2015).…”