Dr Fiona Henderson

Fiona is an Associate Professor at VU and currently an Honorary Professor.

In this capacity 2018 has seen her:

• teaching Evaluation to the Master of TESOL students in Vietnam
• being the academic coordinator for 2 New Colombo Plan Study Tours for VU’s Bachelor of Education students (to China and Thailand respectively)
• conducting English language testing in China
• coordinating the Professional Development program for 17 visiting Thai teachers from the Rajaphat University Network
• co-supervising 5 Research students.

She has had several management roles including leading the Academic Support & Development team at Victoria University and co-chairing the 2017 Association of Academic Language and Learning biennial conference.

She was a co-researcher and author of VU’s Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee (AVCC) grant Improving Language and Learning Support for Offshore Students in 2005. She was a senior team member in the highly successful Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded Academic Literacy Project, Investigating the efficacy of culturally specific academic literacy and academic honesty resources for Chinese students.

She has led VU’s annual Teaching and Learning conference with Chinese partner institutions in China and is currently undertaking collaborative research projects into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with the Chinese partner institutions. Her Office of Learning & Teaching (OLT) funded Academic Integrity project Working from the Centre: supporting unit/course co-ordinators to implement academic integrity policies, resources and scholarship has a very practical focus, as have the resources she created and trialed for the OLT project on the transition needs of International PG students.

Fiona received a Carrick Citation in 2007, a Victoria University College Award in 2011 and a VC Citation in 2012 and 2016.

Recent publications

PhD Thesis

Henderson, F (2011) Connecting Higher Education and the Chinese workplace: What makes a Chinese graduate with an Australian qualification employable in China? Victoria University, Melbourne.

Book chapters

Henderson, F, McWilliams, A & Xing, Y (2011), 'Harmonising Chinese & Australian ideas about learning in the workplace', in C Clark & J Zhou (eds), Internationalization of China's Higher Education: Challenges for Sino-foreign Joint Educational Programs/Institutions, Liaoning University Press, Shenyang, China.

Henderson, F & Pearce, A (2011), 'Collaborative research with Chinese teaching partners to further student academic language and learning support', in C Clark & J Zhou (eds), Internationalization of China's Higher Education: Challenges for Sino-foreign Joint Educational Programs/Institutions, Liaoning University Press, Shenyang, China.

Conferences

Henderson, F, Chahal, D, Fotovatian, S & Carr, A (2011) ‘Integrating First Year Education: Two Models’ 14th Pacific Rim First Year In Higher Education Conference (FYHE), Fremantle, 29 June – 1 July.

Henderson, F & McWilliams, A (2011) ‘Policy into Practice: Bringing graduate attributes and employability skills into undergraduate subjects in China’, Australian International Education Conference (AIEC), Adelaide, 11–14 October.

Henderson, F & McWilliams, A  (2011) ‘A Writing Circle to Enhance Engagement with the Discipline of Management’, Tenth Biennial Conference of the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL) “Forging New direction in ALL”, University of South Australia, 24-25 November.

Ridley, C & Henderson, F (2011) ‘Joining the Sectors:  Pathways for Success’, Critical Discussions about Social Inclusion, University of Wollongong, 10 June.

Websites

Contribution to the following websites:

• English language support: English for Uni.

Teaching responsibilities

Fiona teaches the unit Evaluation to Master of TESOL students. She also teaches academic skills within a variety of other Masters subjects and runs writing circles with PhD students.

Research grants

Principal/Co-principal investigator:

AVCC (2005) $99,000 Improving Language and Learning Support for Offshore Students

ALTC (2010) $80,000Investigating the efficacy of culturally specific academic literacy and academic honesty resources for Chinese students

OLT (2012) $130,000Working from the Centre: supporting unit/course co-ordinators to implement academic integrity policies, resources and scholarship

Professional memberships

Association of Academic Language and Learning