Article published in:
Literacies: Tertiary contexts
Compiled and edited by Zosia Golebiowski
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 25:2] 2002
► pp. 73–99

Cultures of learning

Critical reading in the social and applied sciences

| Curtin University of Technology
| Curtin University of Technology

Australian university students are characterised in some quarters, and by employer groups especially, as lacking a high facility with literacy skills. But what literacy skills do students actually need for tertiary study in Australia today? What expectations do students and teachers have about learning the particular literacy skills needed to acquire, evaluate and convey information in their discipline? And to what extent are traditional notions of the culture of learning in Australian universities as ‘critically active’ reflected in practice? This paper compares course requirements and student reading practices in a selection of units in Business, Engineering, Health Science and Social Science and the findings challenge prevailing ideas of what constitutes ‘tertiary literacy’ in Australian universities.

Published online: 01 January 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.25.2.07kir
References
Ballard, B. & Clanchy, J.
(1991) Teaching students from overseas: a brief guide for lecturers and supervisors. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.Google Scholar
Ballard, B.
(1995) How critical is critical thinking? Paper given at the Language in Development Conference, Denpasar, Bali, April 10–12.
Becher, T.
(1989) Academic tribes and territories. Milton Keynes: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.Google Scholar
Biggs, J.
(1987) Student approaches to learning and studying. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
Bizzell, P.
(1992) Academic discourse and critical consciousness. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Clanchy, J. & Ballard, B.
(1981) Generic skills in the context of higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 14 (2), 55–166.Google Scholar
Collins, J.
(1993) The troubled text’: history and language in American university basic writing programs. In P. Freebody & A. Welch (Eds.) Knowledge, culture and power: international perspectives on literacy as policy and pedagogy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Cortazzi, M.
(1990) Cultural and educational expectations in the language classroom. In B. Harrison (Ed.) ELT Documents 1321. Culture and the language classroom (pp. 54–65). London: Modern English Publications and the British Council.Google Scholar
Davis, L.
(1994) "Doing English": student transitions from high school to university English. English in Australia, No. 110, December, 3–18.Google Scholar
DEET/OECD
(1993) The transition from elite to mass higher education. Conference Proceedings, 15-18 June. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Entwistle, N. & Ramsden, P.
(1983) Undertstanding student learning. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Gibbs, G.
(1992) Research into student learning. In B. Smith & S. Brown (Eds.) Research into teaching and learning in higher education. London: Staff Educational Development Association.Google Scholar
Higher Education Council (HEC)
(1992) Higher education: achieving quality. Canberra: NBEET/AGPS.Google Scholar
Illing, D.
(1994) Employers reinforce calls for improved communication skills in graduates. Campus Review Jan/Feb, 21.Google Scholar
Kalantzis, M.
(1993) Cultural diversity and higher education. In A. Barthel (Ed.) Cultural diversity in higher education. Sydney: University of Technology Sydney.Google Scholar
Kember, D.
(1996) The intention to both memorise and understand: another approach to learning? Higher Education, 311, 341–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liston, C. B.
(1997)  Graduate attributes survey (GAS): results of a pilot study. Paper presented at the Australasian Association of Institutional Research, Eighth International Conference, November 1997.
MacLachlan, G. & Reid, I.
(1994) Framing and interpretation. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Maclellan, E.
(1997) Reading to learn. Studies in Higher Education, 22 (3), 284. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mclnnis, C & James, R.
(1995) First year on campus: diversity in the initial experiences of Australian undergraduates. Report for the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Nightingale, P.
(1986) Improving student writing. Green Guide No.4. Canberra: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.Google Scholar
(1988) Language and learning: a bibliographical essay. In G. Taylor, B. Ballard, V. Beasley, H.K. Bock, J. Clanchy & P. Nightingale (Eds.) Literacy by degrees (pp. 65–81). London: Society for Research in Higher Education.Google Scholar
(1991) Language performance of tertiary students. Responding to literacy needs: implications for teacher educators and training consultants. Conference Proceedings. Queensland Board of Teacher Registration.Google Scholar
No time to understand courses: graduates
(1997) The Australian, July 16, 331.Google Scholar
Ramsden, P. & Entwistle, N.
(1981) Effects of academic departments in students’ approaches to studying. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 631, 276–280.Google Scholar
Reid, I, Kirkpatrick, A. & Mulligan, D.
(1998) Framing student literacy: cross-cultural aspects of English communication skills in Australian university settings – framing reading. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research and Centre for Literacy, Culture and Language Pedagogy, Curtin University of Technology.Google Scholar
Reid, I.
(1997) Disciplinary literacy and cultural perspectives on student literacy. In Z. Golebiowski & H. Borland (Eds.) Academic communication across disciplines and cultures. Selected proceedings of the First National Conference on Tertiary Literacy: Research & Practice, Volume 21 (pp. 1–11). Melbourne: Victoria University of Technology.Google Scholar
Scollon, R.
(1994) As a matter of fact: the changing ideology of authorship and responsibility in discourse. World Englishes, 13 (1), 33–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1996) Intercultural communication and ethnography - why? and why not? Paper presented at the Knowledge and Discourse Conference, University of Hong Kong, 18-21 June.
Shils, E.
(1997) The calling of education: the academic ethic and other essays on higher education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smeby, J. C.
(1996) Disciplinary differences in university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 21 (1), 69–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spires, H., Huntley-Johnston, L. & Huffman, L.
(1993) Developing a critical stance toward text through reading, writing and speaking. Journal of Reading, 37 (2), 114–122.Google Scholar
Taylor, G.
(1988) The literacy of knowing: content and form in students’ English. In G. Taylor, B. Ballard, V. Beasley, H.K. Bock, J. Clanchy & P. Nightingale Literacy by degrees (pp. 53–64). London: Society for Research in Higher Education.Google Scholar
Taylor, G., West, L. & Nightingale, P.
(1987) The writing of first year history undergraduates in 1974 and 1984: report to the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission. Melbourne: Higher Education Research & Advisory Committee, Monash University.Google Scholar
Taylor, G.
(1978) Coming to terms with English expression in the university. Vestes, 21 (3/4), 34–37.Google Scholar
Volet, S., Renshaw, P. & Tietzel, K.
(1994) A short-term longitudinal investigation of cross-cultural differences in study approaches using Biggs’ SPQ. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 641, 301–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 12 other publications

Alauddin, Mohammad & Adrian Ashman
2014. The changing academic environment and diversity in students' study philosophy, beliefs and attitudes in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development 33:5 ► pp. 857 ff. Crossref logo
Beaumont, Chris, Claire Moscrop & Susan Canning
2016. Easing the transition from school to HE: scaffolding the development of self-regulated learning through a dialogic approach to feedback. Journal of Further and Higher Education 40:3 ► pp. 331 ff. Crossref logo
Clarke, Patricia, Daniel Schull, Glen Coleman, Rachael Pitt & Catherine Manathunga
2013. Enhancing professional writing skills of veterinary technology students: linking assessment and clinical practice in a communications course. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 38:3 ► pp. 273 ff. Crossref logo
Dobinson, Toni
2012. Out of Asia: learning re-examined, teacher education re-configured. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 32:2 ► pp. 167 ff. Crossref logo
Ford, P. J., N. Foxlee & W. Green
2009. Developing information literacy with first year oral health students. European Journal of Dental Education 13:1 ► pp. 46 ff. Crossref logo
Gravett, Karen
2021. Troubling transitions and celebrating becomings: from pathway to rhizome. Studies in Higher Education 46:8 ► pp. 1506 ff. Crossref logo
Jen, Tindale
2009.  In Researching International Pedagogies, ► pp. 147 ff. Crossref logo
O’Toole, Mitch
2004.  In Missing the Meaning, ► pp. 161 ff. Crossref logo
Star, Cassandra & Sara Hammer
2008. Teaching generic skills: eroding the higher purpose of universities, or an opportunity for renewal?. Oxford Review of Education 34:2 ► pp. 237 ff. Crossref logo
Tapper *, Joanna
2004. Student perceptions of how critical thinking is embedded in a degree program. Higher Education Research & Development 23:2 ► pp. 199 ff. Crossref logo
Winstone, Naomi E. & Julie A. Hulme
2019.  In Engaging Student Voices in Higher Education, ► pp. 159 ff. Crossref logo
Zhao, Ke, Jiming Zhou & Phillip Dawson
2021. Using student-instructor co-constructed rubrics in signature assessment for business students: benefits and challenges. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 28:2 ► pp. 170 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 06 january 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.