MSA staff participate in international conference: 'A matter of heart'

2 April 2006

The passion and enthusiasm of Dr Kaya Prpic, of the IT Faculty at Clayton, and her support team, who convened and organised the International Education Conference ‘A matter of heart’ held in Malaysia recently, enabled educationalists from around the world to share their international experiences.

In support of international education, a contingent of MSA staff, including academic staff from the Schools of IT and Arts, the Academic Development Programme as well as a member of the administrative staff, recently participated in this ‘conference with a difference’.

Mother and daughter research team Ms Irene Maitland and Ms Lynne Manson, submitted two papers, both of which elicited much interest from the lecturers at the Sunway Academy, Kuala Lumpur. The paper ‘Can you speak Maths? The effects of language diversity in the learning of Mathematics’ presented by Ms Lynne Manson also created avid interest from the Malaysian media. The presentation by Ms Irene Maitland ‘Help! Someone help! The critical need for a peer mentoring support system for pre-undergraduate students’ was introduced in a lively manner through drama and incorporated animation, music and story-telling.

Dr Judy Backhouse and Ms Sheelagh Walton's dramatic presentation: ‘Hello? Is anyone there? Connecting colleagues across continents to realize the vision of international education’, emphasised the frustrations and pleasures of communicating across campuses. Dr Walter Wong, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor at Monash Malaysia, agreed that these issues were also relevant to at that campus.

In her paper ‘The development of professional identity of University Lecturers’, Ms Debbie Lees investigated the type of learning involved in the development of professional identity of university lecturers and identified ways of optimising the type of learning involved for lecturer development purposes.

On behalf of a research team (comprising Ass Prof Marilyn Lucas, Maria Damianova, Sue Burney and Maria Ponto) Marilyn presented a paper entitled: ‘Globalisation and cultural specificity in stress and coping among female and male students studying in South Africa and Australia’ which provided an overview of the similarities and differences in levels of stress and coping skills among students.

Ms Maria Damianova’s presentation (co-authored by Prof Lucas and Ms Debra Cairns) ‘Cross-cultural adaptability and openness to experience in multicultural societies: A South African perspective’, explored gender variations and culture/language-bound similarities and differences in these two individual constructs, relating them to the common, yet unique social, political and cultural history of the particular communities in South Africa.

The paper ‘A critical analysis of the role of Monash South Africa in the international drive of Monash University", was presented by award winning playwright Dr Braam van der Vyver and stimulated extensive interest and discussion.

Through the use of video, sound and drama (and wearing appropriate African dress), Mr Peter Goddard captured the spirit of the conference in his presentation ‘Education outside the classroom: Identifying and implementing the educational needs of ‘shadow employees’ in an international educational institution’.

On behalf of the group Sheelagh Walton from the School of IT said: ”We are all very proud that the wealth of knowledge shared was brought home with us and will enable us to improve and enhance the teaching and learning experiences that our already fast-growing international African campus affords us”.