The chapter explores the environmentally sensitive design characteristics of Charles Sturt University’s Albury Wodonga campus and the outdoor learning spaces it provides. Attention will be given to exploring how the holistic and integrated nature of the campus and the environmental functionality of the site provide unique opportunities for learning within learning spaces. Examples are provided of how the natural and built environments of the campus are used as learning spaces to promote social interactions, conversations, and experiences that enhance student learning. The chapter highlights the value of outdoor environments as legitimate and critical spaces for learning within higher education. The chapter explores the benefits of designing teaching space based on strategies that are defined by personal pedagogic repertoires and practical wisdom. By enacting such strategies, it is argued that universities can develop diverse, locally appropriate, and inclusive pedagogies.
As emerging Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being engaged as pedagogical tools, the role of traditional academic values might be overlooked. This chapter highlights some of the challenges faced by educators as they reconcile their own pedagogical reasoning with the engagement opportunities presented through ICTs. It also reports on a study that followed the introduction of three blended-mode university subjects into teacher education programs over several years. The research resulted in identifying ten considerations for an effective pedagogy to use for flexible and blended learning, and it identified ten organizational limitations of applying good pedagogical practices in pursuing blended-mode learning. The chapter also provides an example of the benefits of engaging a heuristic inquiry process when developing pedagogy. It is argued that a heuristic inquiry process provides a framework that allows for a variety of important perspectives to be recognized and acted upon.
The article critically reviews and discusses the findings and recommendations of the Australian Senate Inquiry into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and suggests strategies to achieving the SDGs within and beyond Australia. By employing the focus group discussion method, it critically discusses the report as per the Inquiry’s terms of reference and looks at Australia’s responses to the SDGs both domestically and internationally. It underscores the engagement of government, including the Official Development Assistance, and non-government organisations, and the private sector. To accelerate the implementation of the SDGs, it argues that greater awareness of the SDGs, attitudinal change and systematic implementation and action are needed locally, nationally and globally. The SDGs require an approach that is beyond national interest, focusing on world development that leaves no one behind.
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