Related Papers
Becoming Competent, Confident and Critically Aware: Tracing Academic Numeracy Development in Nursing
2013 •
Linda Galligan
This paper describes the mathematical journey of a mature aged nursing student as she struggles to become more academically numerate. Within the paper, academic numeracy is defined around three features: competence, confidence and critical awareness of both the context of mathematics and students' own relationship with mathematics. It then uses this definition to describe a course for 1st year nursing students to develop their mathematics skills needed for their degree. A conceptual framework, based on Valsiner's Human Development Theory, is used to trace students' developing understanding of academic numeracy. Finally the paper describes one student, Sally, as she struggles to become more numerate.
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia
Becoming more numerate: the journey of Tania
2010 •
Linda Galligan
This is the academic numeracy journey of Tania, who participated in a research study that investigated the academic numeracy skills of nursing students. Tania is a mature aged woman, and her story represents many of such mature aged students as they journey into a largely unknown university culture. The data for this research came from student assignments, surveys, interview transcripts, emails and screencasts. To see the development in Tania's numeracy, this paper utilises the micro- and macrogenetic models from Valsiner, and his approach to dialogic self. We see Tania in different I-positions in particular of becoming a university student, becoming a nursing student and becoming numerate i.e. as being able to use mathematics confidently and competently in a nursing context.
Building academic numeracy in a first year nursing course using an evaluative model of program development. Paper presented at the Adult mathematics education: Papers from the Topic
2005 •
Linda Galligan
Numeracy is a key attribute in nursing. At the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), a large regional university in Australia, numeracy has been embedded in a course in the first semester nursing program. This chapter identifies the numeracy needs of these nursing students and outlines the model of learning improvement, based on that of Keimig, chosen to target the students' learning within a course. It also describes the method of evaluation and development guiding each of the course design, delivery, and improvement stages. These include both quantitative and qualitative strategies designed to investigate students' and staffs' reflections on curriculum design and assessment. These data collection strategies enabled the design team to incorporate a number of features specifically designed to engage and empower student nurses' numeracy skills in the delivery stage. The program conclusions in the first stage revealed the need for a number of improvements, inclu...
Academic numeracy as a framework for course development
2013 •
Linda Galligan
This paper defines academic numeracy around three features: competence, confidence and critical awareness of both the context of mathematics and students' own relationship with mathematics. It then uses this definition to frame a course and assessment for 1st year nursing students to develop their mathematics skills needed for their degree.
An integrative approach to building professional attributes in a first year nursing course: description and preliminary analysis of academic numeracy
2010 •
Linda Galligan
This paper will describe the characteristics of an academic numeracy component of two new courses designed to build the academic attributes student nurses need to succeed at university and in the nursing profession. It will also report on a project designed to evaluate and improve these courses. This project had a collective case-study design, including quantitative and qualitative methodologies which involved students and academic staff reflecting on curriculum design and assessment. Finally the paper will report on the 2008 courses revised as a result of the evaluation.
Mathematics Education Research …
Shaping the future of mathematics education: Proceedings of the 33rd annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia
2010 •
Barry Kissane
Nursing students’ readiness for the numeracy needs of their program: students’ perspective
2017 •
Linda Galligan
Numeracy needs of nursing students are often underestimated by students when they enter university. Even when students are aware of the mathematics required, students underestimate or overestimate the skills they have. Research has highlighted the mathematics and numeracy skills required of nurses and nursing students and numerous studies have tested these skills. Research highlighted in this paper investigates students’ perceptions of these skills generally, and students’ retrospective reflection after having finished a course. Results indicate both an underestimation and overestimation of students’ skills when compared to students’ results.
Measuring academic numeracy: beyond competence testing
2011 •
Linda Galligan
Academic numeracy consists of three critical elements: competence, confidence and critical awareness of students' own mathematical knowledge and the mathematics used in students' future professions. This definition is used to frame pre-test assessment in a first year nursing program. Competence and confidence were measured using a paper and pencil test. Critical awareness was measured via students' reflections on their own performance, their relationship to mathematics and their understanding of how mathematics relates to nursing. Results show issues related to professional numeracy practices including relatively low understanding of the connection between mathematics and nursing.
Journal of Academic Language and Learning
Evaluating individual teaching on the road to embedding academic skills
2008 •
Linda Galligan
Based on an evaluation of one-on-one student consul tations in The Learning Centre at USQ, this paper argues that there is an i mportant place for individual consultations in a university context, but that this should be seen as part of a number of learning enhancement strategies on a continuum. Embedding academic skills development into discipline-specifi c curricula would be placed on the ideal end of this continuum, but the insights gained from oneto-one consultations are crucial in this process. A n evaluation of one-to-one consultations shows the complexity of student needs , and this paper has identified four levels of this complexity: conceptu al “stuck places”, student scaffolding for learning, affect and development, a nd course and assessment analysis. The arguments are supported by case studi es in mathematics and academic writing, in conjunction with survey data.
Employing interdisciplinary collaborations to redefine academic practices in a university nursing program
2010 •
Linda Galligan
This paper documents how interdisciplinary collaborations between academic staff helped redefine academic practices in the first year undergraduate nursing program conducted at the University of Southern Queensland. The interdisciplinary collaborations constituted a response to the various contexts currently impacting the higher education sector in Australia. These contexts include changes in pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, academic identity, technology, research-informed learning, student and stakeholder expectations as well as the challenges of managing an increasingly diverse student body. The interdisciplinary boundaries were crossed so that academic practices were integrated to assist student nurses to transfer the academic, literacy, numeracy, e-learning and information technology attributes they need if they are to succeed at university and in the nursing profession. This research study used a continuous evaluative methodology to test the effectiveness of these academic pra...
