Objects, observation and opportunity: Postcards
byWhat can a postcard teach us? At first glance, perhaps not very much. A small piece of card, usually with a picture on one…
Arts and Social Sciences
The power of team-based learning and peer review to overcome silent classrooms
byWhen I first started teaching international students back in 2023, my classrooms were noticeably and unexpectedly quiet. The silence was neither confusion nor disengagement;…
Found in translation: How translanguaging deepened my students’ academic English
byAustralia’s universities have never been more internationally diverse – and nowhere is that clearer than at the University of Sydney. Yet sit in on…
Designing and planning group work for first-year gender studies students
byAs an educator in Gender Studies, I am constantly guided by feminist values in recognising diversity and power hierarchies in the classroom. Out of…
Designing assessment as a learning journey in language studies
byIn 2018, I found myself reflecting on a question that many language teachers have probably asked at some point: How do we create opportunities…
Podcasting as co-production: Creating knowledge with students
byThis semester, I experimented with something I had never formally incorporated into my teaching before: producing a podcast with final-year anthropology students reflecting on…
Using ‘Demonstrative Research Papers’ to coach transparent scholarship
byRecent challenges with open written assessments There has been an understandable focus on secure assessments lately, but not all assessments can be secured, and…
Rethinking foreign language learning through graphic narratives
byStudents today rarely read only words, but constantly move between images, video, text, and design in their everyday lives. Outside the classroom, they scroll…
Teaching Chinese classical literature in Australian classrooms through close reading and creative adaptation
byHong Lou Meng (紅樓夢), also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber, is one of the most celebrated works in the canon of…
To Gen AI or not to Gen AI: Collaborating with student partners on the two-lane assessment approach
byTime has passed since the unleashing of ChatGPT for public consumption in November 2022, and we are no longer faced with the dilemma of…