I want to talk about ‘just beginning’. Many of you will be attending PPDR planning meetings in the coming days. And you will be thinking about what you need to do; how you are going to do it; how will you know that you completed what you set out to do and measure it; and importantly, why you are focusing on a particular goal or skill or area. I am here to say, start with putting one foot after the other. So, let’s begin.
Planning
As an example, I will focus this post on planning your scholarly goal which as you are aware should be one of the goals in your PPDRs. You are going to start with what you already know, if you taught last year, you already have access to a goldmine of information from informal feedback from students and colleagues, to the more data-driven feedback from QUASAR. This is a lot of information, so be intentional when choosing what one thing you want to improve in terms of your teaching practice.
To help you locate some resources to help you scope out what one thing you would like to focus on, you can explore your PD hub for teaching quality and research which was recently launched in March 2025. This space does not duplicate information but signposts resources, links and tools that can help you with your scholarly goal.
Doing
Here are a few showcases of one thing that your teaching colleagues have done to advance discipline knowledge, enhance student’s learning experiences, and provides insights for next steps. It is important during the doing cycle of your goals that you document, journal, capture what is happening in this particular task or activity. I actually use a physical notebook and pen to write down observations, so I can revisit them when I am ready to reflect on the experience.
The Teaching Academy has launched its Educator Development Grant. It’s something you should consider to help you begin.
Dr Nicole Sugden Dr Leigh Grant, Dr Jenni Greig, & Amita Krautloher representing the School of Psychology provide insights into how a change in assessment type provided more equitable learning experiences among their students.
Prof Yeslam Al-Saggaf and myself look at co-creation with students in a computing subject which provided students with motivation to engage with the synchronous online meetings.
Prof Ashad Muhammad Kabir from the School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering illustrates the use of a coding tool to enhance the student experience.
Reflection
I am shamelessly sharing my last opinion post. Have a read, and take what you need.
I recently took over producing the BJBS News podcast, Ergo Cogito. I am using this opportunity to expand my engagement with my scholarly activity across the faculty. In the last few weeks, I have been privileged to sit down and chat with two inspirational women from our Faculty, Dr Rachel Hogg and Professor Jac Birt. Rachel is currently featured in our Ergo Cogito podcast episode 2; and Jac will be featured in episode 3. In these two particular episodes, I have been able to intentionally observe where the nexus of discipline and research and teaching quality happens. As outlined by TEQSA’s definition of Scholarly Activity, it is important that Higher Education academics who teach should engage in activities that improve and advances a field of knowledge. So I encourage you to listen to Rachel’s (available now) and Jac’s episodes (coming soon) to see how this plays out in our schools.
And finally, I am sharing the TED Talk by Duolingo’s Luis Von Ahn where he starts off with changing one small thing, which then led to a big impact on language education in the world.
Reach out via FOBJBS-News@csu.edu.au if you have a question, or you just want to connect. I look forward to learning more!
