ALTC Grant Outcomes 05122011 Presentation

8/3/2019 ALTC Grant Outcomes 05122011 Presentation

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A national soil science curriculum in response tothe needs of students, academic staff, industry,

and the wider community

Key Outcomes from the Project :



Deliverables

• Develop learning outcomes for soil science topics and subjects taught by theconsortium, including feedback from students and stakeholders (employers)

• Consensus on the teaching and learning practices and effective contextuallearning

• Report on limitations and missing capabilities in learning and teaching

• Use feedback from staff, students, graduates and employers, from surveys

and at forums to move towards curriculum revision.

• Move towards and national curriculum enabled by a tried and tested platform

• Propose the establishment of a national soil science education group as part

of Soil Science Australia



The Forums



Methods Overall Approach

Community Consultation

•Three surveys

•Three forums

Crucial for developing thesoil science community ofpractice



Stakeholder Engagement

• Focused on arriving at a consensus by considering;

• Different models practiced at each institutions

• The fact that curricula are often content driven

• Diverse employer, graduate and professional interests/needs



Forum 1

• Academic staff reflecting on their current practices, personal learning,

experiences, and the feedback from their current students.

• Outcomes



Forum 1

Sydney University

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Western Australia

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Melbourne University

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• Solving the problem is solving

the client’s problem

• Problem-based learning (PBL)

N.B. Data is only indicative and represents

the units of study mode of teaching up to 2010

as institutions have made

changes to their respective curriculum since



Forum 1

Presented at the 19th World Congress of Soil Science, as a paper entitled Producing the Thinking Soil Scientist

in Brisbane 2010. Was awarded Best Oral Presentation – over 35 yrs, by the Australian Soil Science Society Inc.



Forum 2

• Further reflections on learning and teaching in response to the feedback

obtained from graduates and employers (surveys and in person)

• Outcomes

• Proposal for joint units of study & national field unit• Soil Science Teaching Principles

Presentation of a curriculum developed forThe Mining Council of Australia

indicated shared issues

and how a National Curriculumhas been successfully

implemented for their disciplineover time



HistoryAnalogous to the Mining Council of Australia’s

initiative. Why it all began for them?

An initiative of the Mining Council of Australia incorporating:

A decline in the number of mining engineering schools offering a full

four year program

A decline in the number of graduates

A decline in the number of mining engineering academics and ancorresponding increase in average the age of mining engineering

academics

A decline in the number of students completing PhDs on miningrelated topics.

Opportunity for an innovative approach to engineering education



History

What was needed?

An initiative of the Mining Council of Australia incorporating:

Agreed Curriculum of shared core and elective courses

Curriculum is reviewed collectively each year.

Video Conferencing, new lecture spaces and related technologies

Shared Learning Management System (LMS)

Peer Assessment strategy, including formative and summative

feedback A decline in the number of students completing PhDs on mining

related topics.

We agreed on shared topics

Have a similar issue re for soil with respect to local students

Identified and used an LMSenabling easy sharing of topics

M o v i n g t o w

a r d s i n i t i a t i n g o r a c h i e v i n g t h e s e

Developed and adopted a strategy



Forum 2



Forum 2

• Soil Science Teaching Principles

• Uniqueness

• Fieldwork

• Jargon

• Active Learning

• Connections

• Systems

• Communication

• Authentic Learning

• Feedback

• Assessment



Forum 2

• Graduates are proficient in 5 areas;

• Identification, understanding and application of the unique properties and

process of Soil Science

• The role, context and relationships of Soil Science to other disciplines andsociety as part of interrelated systems

• Identify problems and design contextual solutions

• The ability to coordinate and function within and between relevant groupsand effectively communicate results

• Manage self for personal development and lifelong learning

The first relates to the discipline, the second focuses on the discipline as part of a system, the third on its application, andthe fourth and fifth are concerned with the ability of the individual to communicate the discipline and their on-going learning



Forum 3

• Implementing joints units of study for students at different institutions based on

learning and teaching reflections and stakeholder input.

• Outcomes

• Guidelines for on-line learning• Topics developed for units of study

• http://guava.edfac.usyd.edu.au/agrimoodle/

http://guava.edfac.usyd.edu.au/agrimoodle/

http://guava.edfac.usyd.edu.au/agrimoodle/



Highlights and Recommendations

• Highlights

• Strength of the soil science community of practice

• Development and acceptance of the TRIL Model which should be used as a

guide when developing units of study• Development and publication of Soil Science Teaching Principles

• The utilisation of sequential action-learning cycles to develop the outcomes,a methodology not commonly used in this discipline to stimulate reflection

and learning

• Development and implementation of cross-institutional topics for units ofstudy

• Forums that were effective, engaging and learning experiences

• Willingness of forum participants to engage in reflective practice

• Participation of external learning and teaching experts for other disciplines



CBoK: Core Body of Knowledge

Documents

ALTC Grant Outcomes 05122011 Presentation