EditorialJournal to address gap in HE sectorSince the release of the Australian Government's White Paper in 1988 there have been significant changes occurring in the Australian Higher Education sector. Worldwide there is growing acknowledgement that teaching and learning at University has undergone a transformation. Students entering University now come from a much broader range of backgrounds. Many are having to work to support their study and all are expected to develop lifelong learning skills. The intensity of these changes has led University Teachers to develop a range of teaching skills that encompass supporting student diversity, flexible methods of delivery, particularly use of different technologies and more varied approaches to assessment. A search of journal titles revealed a lack of publications that cover learning and teaching practice at university level. There has often been an assumption that the well developed principles that underpin school-based education could be equally applied to university education. However, for most practitioners their experience has shown that they have had to develop new approaches to teaching and learning because of the type and pace of changes that have taken place in the higher education sector. The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) is an attempt to address this gap in publications in the higher education sector. This first issue contains all University of Wollongong based authors, although the Board and Reviewers are from institutions throughout the world. In future editions submissions will be encouraged from authors based at any higher education institution in the world. This first issue starts with a thought piece from Rodney Nillsen, a long-standing member of the Higher Education community. This item didn't quite fit the scope of the journal but it was well reviewed and reminds us that the love of learning is important to being a good teacher. The article from Hoban et al reports on a very useful resource that has been developed as a repository for discipline-based teaching strategies. This article not only gives insight into the development of this valuable resource but the repository itself is also openly accessible. The following article from Sandra Jones describes the application of the nominal group technique in investigating poor seminar attendance. It is hoped this provides insight into a useful technique for others to use. The final article from Brian McCarthy is on tertiary foreign language teaching and provides some practical guidance in this area based on his many years of teaching experience. Your comments and submissions are always encouraged and I welcome you to read our first issue.
Helen Carter
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