Learning and teaching lies at the heart of all universities. Universities are learning organisations. The major challenges our sector faces are shared by all universities internationally, but they are all responding quite differently to them. As part of our drive towards supporting the best learning experience we can, I promote a pedagogically driven approach which builds upon our existing ethos and extends from this approach.
We have a long tradition of interdisciplinary learning and teaching and we also have evolved many learning spaces that allow our students the benefits of learning in near real world contexts and environments. Pedagogic approaches that reflect this approach well include activity led learning, problem based learning, challenge led learning and authentic learning. As a community we need to consider how we can best build on our historical strengths in real world learning through deepened pedagogic development. Also, how can we build upon our expertise and better share practices, whilst maintaining our depth and breadth of educational offerings?
Collectively we can start to iterate our own Murdoch-flavoured pedagogy that blends and takes from a range of theorists to support the best learning experience we can. While there is much to do in a day to day context of the university timetable and teaching patterns, I believe we do need to take some time to reflect on what works and what doesn’t and consider why our model of learning is so unique.
Digital Education 