Making space in your teaching to invite the unexpected | 20 April

What are Hot Topics?

Hot Topics are curriculum and teaching themes that have emerged in UTS from student learning experiences, student feedback surveys (SFS), consultations and other strategic projects. They are a series of professional development and engagement opportunities to enhance courses and provide longer-term support through community building and sustained critical dialogues.

Hot Topic Theme: Student Agency and Teamwork

Can you remember a time when you were positively surprised by your students’ responses to a learning task? Did they immerse themselves completely into a challenge? Did they create something that extended your own thinking about the issue? When was the last time you enjoyed marking students’ work? 

As teachers, we get inspired when we witness creativity or notice a spark of curiosity in how students go about their learning. We are grateful for the enthusiasm with which they throw themselves into teamwork. It is so rewarding when students make connections between their learning and important issues in the world. But why do we sometimes struggle to bring out these desired qualities in our students?

In this session, we will draw on examples of learning and teaching activities and assessment tasks developed at Transdisciplinary School to explore how might we encourage students to exercise agency and creativity in their learning. This includes inviting students to bring their whole selves to learning, attention to students’ relationships with peers and awareness of their contribution to the world beyond the university course. As a participant, you will be challenged to explore how the curriculum you teach could be opened up to create space for students to take more ownership of their learning. 

Students’ ability to exercise agency is a crucial outcome of contemporary university education, preparing students to act ethically and knowledgeably in the supercomplex world we live in today. If we wish to unleash these qualities in students, the challenge for us as teachers is to be mindful about our own role in the facilitation of learning and creating space for students to step up. 

Join us in this session to collectively devise creative strategies for making space in our teaching to invite the unexpected.

About the Presenter

Giedre Kligyte is a Lecturer within the Transdisciplinary School (TD School). She brings her Design background and Higher Education expertise to transdisciplinary teams creating novel learning experiences. Giedre teaches into the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation and Masters of Creative Intelligence and Strategic Innovation degrees. In her research and teaching, Giedre explores transdisciplinarity, agency and ‘third spaces’ – spaces where difference, experimentation and co-creation are embraced to stimulate mutual learning, new ways of thinking and creativity.

Zoom

Zoom link will be provided upon registration.