EditorialVolume Four, Issue 2, 2007
In August this year we were very pleased to see the information on JUTLP in the journal rankings
for the discipline of education as researched by AARE and the University of Newcastle.
JUTLP ranked around the middle of the group of journals for esteem and performed slightly
higher in terms of quality. We were very pleased with this result after only four years in
operation and I refer you to the listing if you haven't already seen it: I would also like to acknowledge the great support that the Journal receives from the University of Wollongong and specifically the dedication of our Production Editor, Helen Brooks and our Web Producer, Daniel Judge. The high quality of their work is important in ensuring the ongoing value of our publication. This second issue of volume four contains five papers demonstrating our broad approach to our understanding of what constitutes teaching and learning practice. In this vein we continue to improve on our criteria to help both our authors and our reviewers with their contributions to our Journal. Our first article from Francis is uncomplicatedly conceived but might be a bit contentious. He proposes using data gathered from a simple concept mapping process to verify student learning. He suggests that teachers use this process to document student performance related to reappointment, promotion, and tenure. I will be interested to see further submissions that respond to this article both in support and perhaps challenging his assertion. Willison's paper examines the characteristics of academic development programs to determine those that are important for enacting ethical principles. He suggests that the principles of vision and choice are the most significant characteristics required. He provides a practical example of how these two characteristics could be embedded in a Graduate Certificate program for academic staff using the framework provided by the University's graduate attributes for students. Crisp and Palmer present us with a practical discussion on how to get the best value out of multiple choice data. They propose that this data be used to not only consider improvements to the actual assessment but to identify appropriate items for inclusion in diagnostic and formative assessment tasks. They have come up with a set of simple visual formats that allow teaching staff to identify questions that could be reviewed before being used again. The fourth paper is from Skehan, Burns and Hazell and highlights some of the complexities of media reporting around suicide and mental illness and the important influence this can have on shaping community attitudes. Their paper reports on a project to develop resources designed to give journalism graduates a better understanding of these issues and how to respond to them. The final paper is from Roettger, Roettger and Walugembe and provides some brief guidelines to what constitutes effective teaching strategies for university teachers. The researchers studied the relationship between teaching effectiveness and the dynamics of student demographics, as well as reviewing a range of teaching and learning theories, to develop a simple framework for assessing the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching. The final recommendations are based on the conclusions resulting from this analysis. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year
Helen Carter
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