Abstract

University students develop their learning skills most effectively in the context of their disciplines. A collaboration between discipline-based and learning skills staff is therefore very beneficial in supporting first-year students in their transition to tertiary studies. In 2006 a compulsory first-year unit was introduced in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia that focused on information literacy, academic writing, interpersonal communication and oral presentation skills in planning contexts. Units in the first-year course were closely integrated so that students were led through the research and draft writing processes in the learning skills unit for assignments set in their other units. They also completed case studies, role plays, oral presentations and reflective practice exercises set in planning contexts. Discipline-based and learning skills staff collaborated to create interleaved units, to team teach where relevant, and to evaluate and restructure their units. In these ways students became more successful participants in the discourse of planning, developing skills that would enhance both their university studies and their future professional careers