Yining Guo

What are the benefits of UniSA and their teaching staff?

"The teaching practice might be a little challenging for students who are not experienced, but each one of us was assigned a mentor teacher from the University, a site coordinator and at least one more mentor teacher from the school who constantly support us. We also get productive feedback from them, which is beneficial to our future career.

UniSA features high quality of teaching staff. Lecturers are highly accomplished in their own academic areas, so the lectures are informative and offer insights into the topics.

Every Master of Teaching student needs to complete three teaching practicums.

I love a wide range of things about UniSA. First is the effective education model, which combines lectures and tutorials. After an hour lecture on theories about a certain topic and a framework of relevant knowledge, a 2-hour tutorial is a good opportunity of reflecting on the knowledge we have learnt from the lecture. Reflection can take the form of presentation, discussion, debate and practical work in classroom. This model of education promotes deeper understanding and the ability of applying knowledge to real situations.

Second is multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is not only seeing different skin colours on campus, but also the appreciation, acceptance and promotion of multiple cultures. In class, lecturers and tutorial leaders always pay attention to the cultural diversity in classroom and sometimes purposefully relate the lecture content to various cultural backgrounds and they encourage students from different countries to sit together and have discussions. After class, students hang out together in cafeteria and learn about interesting customs, food, religions from each other. Everyone feels included and engaged.

The Mawson Lakes campus is a great place for study. There are heaps of good things about this campus such as quiet, spacious, resourceful and easy-parking and so on.

The staff from 'Campus Central' are friendly and helpful. They are like gurus knowing everything about University's online system. The Library is also a fantastic place where huge archive is accessible, and for free. Facilities like printers, photocopiers and scanners are at hand and there is no need to worry about waiting because there are enough machines to use. I sometimes go to 'Learning and Teaching Unit'. The staff there are nice and patient. They are always ready to help students with a whole range of issues related to study such as assignment analysis, grammar checking and research counselling."

What are your impressions of Adelaide?

"My first impression of Adelaide is that it is a quiet, nice and clean city. People are friendly and easy-going and they love socialising. Food, drink and entertainment are common topics for local people. No wonder South Australia is said to be the 'festival state'.

I will be seeking a teaching position in South Australia after I graduate. The Master of Teaching program is acknowledged by the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia."

What is your advice to others?

"Life is easy here, because we are supported by UniSA since day 1. Whenever we come across difficulties, a simple email or a phone call will solve the problem in no time.

Settlement may not be as hard as you expect. UniSA offers a wide range of help especially for new students, such as public transport timetables, accommodation counselling, rental and homestay database, orientation sessions, legal issue counselling and academic and language help and so on. The university helped me a lot during the first several months, which made my settlement smooth and efficient."