In recent times, there has been a strong focus on moving university teaching away from a so-called 'instructivist', lecture-centred mode, in which the focus is on what teachers are doing, towards a more student-centred 'constructivist' approach, centred on active learning and students' own constructions of knowledge. This paper considers the…

Integrated curriculum encourages diverse cohorts of students to engage in relevant and meaningful activities that can be connected to their interests both in and beyond the classroom. This research investigated whether contextualising the content and learning activities to specific cohorts, while retaining the same assessments and learning…

We apply Value Nets as a tool for identifying potential partnership opportunities between the University of Adelaide (UofA) and University of South Australia (UniSA), and between the University of Queensland (UQ) paired with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Institutional profile data revealed a similar relationship within each pair.…

Assuring the quality of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment is an increasingly significant issue in higher education. This article explores the potential benefit of 'consensus planning', an ongoing curriculum development, maintenance and monitoring strategy, to achieve consistency of academic standards for student learning and assessment across…

Within higher education there is widespread support for developing students' interdisciplinary skills. Despite this, evidence for, and practice of, cross-faculty interdisciplinary sustainability learning remains in its infancy. Recent articles have shown that Australia is no exception. This article provides a case study of interdisciplinary…

The discipline of education is a multi-faceted system that must constantly integrate new strategies and procedures to ensure successful learning experiences. Enhancements in education provide learners with greater opportunities for growth and advancement. "Open Learning and Formal Credentialing in Higher Education: Curriculum Models and…

This article critically examines the possibility of using Problem-Based Learning as an approach to teaching and learning and curriculum design in Indigenous studies. This approach emphasises the potential for Experience-Based Learning or Problem-Based Learning as a model that frames the curriculum and pedagogical activities to encourage student…

In this article, I take a creative and autoethnographic approach to reflect upon processes of decolonisation in Indigenous Australian studies classrooms. Positioning myself as a non-Indigenous educator, I take the reader on a journey through my search for pedagogy which makes space for the colonial, difficult and messy politics of race, whiteness…

This article explores a project at the Koori Centre, University of Sydney, funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) in 2011, titled "Indigenous On-Line Cultural Teaching and Sharing". One of the team members (Kutay) was also a project team member on the ALTC-funded project "Exploring PBL in Indigenous Australian…

Recent surveys of information technology management professionals show that understanding business domains in terms of business productivity and cost reduction potential, knowledge of different vertical industry segments and their information requirements, understanding of business processes and client-facing skills are more critical for…

There is a burgeoning amount of research into happiness and greatly increased popular attention, so it seems logical to add a course on happiness to the university curriculum. We encountered, in developing and running such a course, a number of dilemmas that the topic of happiness makes especially acute. Should the teacher remain separate from the…

Contributing student pedagogy (CSP) builds upon social constructivist and community-based learning principles to create engaging and productive learning experiences. What makes CSP different from other, related, learning approaches is that it involves students both learning from and also explicitly valuing the contributions of other students. The…

In Australia, as in the UK, much of the skills debate in research education has reflected a deficit model, whereby candidates are deemed to be in need of supplementary training. In response to the demands of employers and governments, most universities have added employability skills to postgraduate curricula, while simultaneously boosting their…

There is not just one mathematics taught at university level, nor is there one group of students. Mathematics is taught differently depending on the discipline and the perceived background of the student. There is engineering mathematics for the students heading towards engineering degrees, life science mathematics for those heading towards…

An Australian study investigated the perceptions of 28 graduate and undergraduate students concerning university teaching and learning, especially with regard to their contact with research projects. The objective was to determine whether students are aware of faculty's research role and whether the conduct of research has an impact on teaching…