ACDS Teaching and Learning Leaders Conference 2022

After two years of only being able to meet online more than forty Science Faculty Associate Deans (Teaching & Learning) and other leaders in science education converged on Canberra for the annual ACDS T&L Leaders Conference.

The 2022 conference was held at the Australian National University on 14 and 15 June.  There was strong representation from among the major university groupings and all Go8 universities took part.

Under the theme What does a BSc look like, post-COVID?, the conference shared insights and experience on

• Cheating, academic integrity and assessment;
• Building cultural competency into the culture of science;
• Understanding the skills employers want and how to build curriculum so students learn these skills;
• Employability in the science curriculum;
• Integrating research into the curriculum.

The program also included discussion of the ACDS priority projects for 2022

• Quality and the BSc;
• Re-imagining assessment;
• Reviewing the Science Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs’) 

The ACDS project to review the existing TLO’s generated much discussion and it was clear that the usefulness of the TLOs could be improved to take account of developments over the last 10 years such as Indigenous science, cultural competence more broadly and work-integrated learning/employability skills. It is also timely to consider increased emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving, cross disciplinary experience, and the importance of laboratory-based skills, particularly the extent to which these are to be achieved and assured in blended learning environments.

A report will be compiled for the Deans.

Thank you to all speakers and participants.  There is no doubt the event provided a very welcome networking experience following the absence of such during COVID. It allowed participants to share and calibrate their insights and experiences of adapting to COVID and its potential long-term impact on teaching and learning practices. 

The conference program is available here.  Summary notes from the presentations including links to the presentations is available here.