Sangay Wangchuk

Boola Katitjin, which translates to “lots of learning” in Noongar, is a newly built, sustainable building that amplifies the Murdoch experience with new places to learn, study and socialise, while reflecting the University’s commitment to both in-person and online learning. With over 60% of the university’s classes able to be timetabled in the building in 2023, the Support for Academic Learning team piloted a team-teaching model to deliver communication skills units to undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts. At the centre of Murdoch University's Perth campus, Boola Katitjin provides a mindful and technology-rich educational experience to learn, connect and belong. Students, staff, and industry alike can meet, work, and engage in the building’s 21 large flat-floor format teaching and learning spaces, technology-rich labs, and immersive industry collaboration facilities. These spaces have been designed to put students at the centre of a social learning environment, enable innovative teaching methods with technology-enhanced features and aesthetic furnishings that encourage active and collaborative learning. Together, we embrace the pedagogical and technology affordances that the new building provides, to deliver memorable and impactful learning experiences for our students. This paper will explore how understanding ways to effectively use the learning spaces plays a significant role in teaching and learning, enabling both students and educators to construct meaning through their interactions with the content, and with one another, within the environment.

For more than a decade, Australia has faced intense teacher shortages. To address this issue, the Australian Government has proposed a strategy of expanding the number of migrant teachers. In the light of growing xenophobia and anti-immigration discourses, this study seeks to understand how the international teacher recruitment is received in Australia. Of equal concern, little is known about the lived experiences of migrant teachers as they navigate an Australian education system characterised by multilayered bureaucracy, complex pedagogical demands, increasing student violence and abuse, and limited resources.

This presentation is based on a qualitative study that showcases the narratives of secondary school migrant teachers. Building on themes of identity, belonging, power, networking and resilience, emergent interview data from Western Australia will provide insight into the experiences of migrant teachers.

Purpose:
With the transition of political, economic, and social scenario in Bhutan, the civil society organizations (CSOs) have been expanding over the years. However, a paucity of trained social workers in Bhutan has compelled the CSOs to recruit employees with varying degrees. Considering such situation, this study was designed to understand the efficacy of Bhutan’s first-ever certificate course in social work offered by Samtse College of Education from the vantage point of the participants.

Method:
It adopted a convergent parallel mixed-method design, primarily employing questionnaires and semistructured individual interviews.

Results:
The study found the certificate course to be highly effective in enhancing the professional competence of the social workers in Bhutan.

Discussion:
The study supports the need to provide similar courses to hundreds of untrained social workers in Bhutan who are aspiring to upgrade their professional competence.

Microteaching, an efficient teacher training technique, provides teachers with an opportunity to enhance their teaching competencies. This study explored the effects of microteaching on the teaching skills of the pre-service teachers at a college of education in Bhutan. The study pursued a mixed mode of research methodology adopting a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. A sample of 64 Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) second year students were selected to participate by clustered random sampling. The students received microteaching guidance from a team of four tutors including the researcher. The data sources included teaching skills assessment, assessment of the analysis report, and students' reflective journal. After performing satisfactory validity and reliability checks, the quantitative data assembled from pretests and posttests and reflective journals were analyzed and interpreted using t-test with p<0.05 level of significance, mean, standard deviation and descriptive statistics frequency. Qualitative data was analyzed based on the grounded theory of Strauss and Corbin (1998). Analysis from the teaching skills assessment analysis report and students' reflective journals revealed that microteaching not only improved the teaching skills of the pre-service teachers but also enhanced their confidence in general.

This study explored the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in supporting the teaching of action research to enhance the learning achievement and learning participation of undergraduate students in Bhutan. Although the use of VLE is becoming increasingly important at the university level in Bhutan, only a limited number of studies have been focused in this field. The study pursued a quantitative approach, adopting a quasi-experimental study with an experimental pretest-posttest control group design. A sample of 68 B. Ed second year students were selected to participate in the study by clustered random sampling. The participants were further divided into two groups, namely control and experimental group. Each group had 34 participants. The experimental group received VLE aided instructions while the control group received instructions through traditional lecture method. Instruments such as achievement tests and questionnaires were used to collect the quantitative data. After performing satisfactory validity and reliability checks, the quantitative data assembled from achievement tests and questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted using inferential statistics t-test with p<0.05 level of significance, mean, standard deviation and descriptive statistics frequency. The posttest achievements scores of experimental and control groups had increased by 16.2 and 8.41 respectively. Students in the experimental group were highly involved in active learning participation while they were taught with the support of VLE. The findings emphasizes that teaching action research module with the support of VLE enhances the students' learning achievement as well as learning participation.