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Critical thinking is at the heart of tertiary education, and is also a key focus of university preparation courses. In particular, developing the ability to read − and to read critically – is vital for aspiring university students. Courses in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) generally include some attention to critical reading, but how this is conceived and realised varies considerably. This paper reports on the findings of an ethnographic study of three EAP teaching-learning contexts in Australia and relates the pedagogy of these classrooms to theories of critical thinking identified by Davies and Barnett (2015) . All three EAP contexts focused to some extent on cognitive skills such as identifying main ideas, but teachers differed in their approach to criticality and attention to critical pedagogy. In some classes, students appeared to take a performative role (simply ‘doing’ the task); however, in other classes students demonstrated a more intense engagement with the content of their reading – an indication of a developing critical disposition which could serve them well at university and beyond. The paper argues that critical reading pedagogy can be realised in different ways, but that nurturing students’ critical dispositions, in particular, requires delicate scaffolding to support their development as critical meaning-makers. Such scaffolding pushes students to develop deeper skills and criticality, yet enables them to feel secure in the transcultural contact zones in which they are participating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates how mixed-mode (MM) ventilation affects occupant comfort by presenting results from a longitudinal field study within an academic office building from a tertiary educational institution in sub-tropical Sydney, Australia. The building automatically switches into air-conditioned (AC) mode whenever indoor temperatures exceed 25 °C. Coincident indoor and outdoor climate measurements along with 1359 subjective comfort questionnaires were collected. Thermal sensations during natural ventilation did not conform to those predicted using Fanger’s PMV-PPD . Differences in thermal perception were also apparent between these two modes. Within AC mode, a PMV = +1 environment elicited much ‘warmer-than-neutral’ thermal sensations than the same PMV = +1 environment within naturally-ventilated (NV) mode, suggesting thermal subjective perceptions were affected by the building’s mode of operation over and above the objective indoor climatic conditions. These discrepancies emphasize the complexity of thermal perception and the inadequacy of using PMV models to describe occupant comfort in MM buildings. ASHRAE’s Standard 55 currently classifies MM buildings as AC buildings, and as such, limits the operation of these buildings to the more restrictive PMV-PPD range of indoor thermal conditions. In contrast, EN15251 permits the more flexible adaptive comfort standard to be applied to buildings operating under NV mode. Results from this study favour EN15251’s application of the adaptive comfort model instead of PMV-PPD to MM buildings when they are operating in NV mode. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the past decade, the growing market of international students has resulted in changing expectations students have about the products offered by tertiary education providers. This is especially evident in Australia where, due to its geographical proximity, universities are increasingly attracting a large number of students from the Asia-Pacific region. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study that investigated Singaporean student perceptions of and interactions with the Australian culture whilst studying at an Australian based university. The study uses this context to provide a better understanding of the role that host countries and universities play in facilitating the educational experiences of students who choose to study in foreign countries. Analysis of data from four group interviews held with Singaporean students reveals an in-depth understanding of how the interactions between international students and those of the host destination influence the experience of the international students. Practical implications relating to the management of the international student experience are presented for the Australian tertiary education sector. fx1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]