94751 Transformational Learning Studio

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

Description

How can we shift our views to think differently, see a problem landscape anew and transform to create new learning pathways?

In this studio, participants collaborate to tackle a contemporary educational challenge or opportunity that cuts across sectors and professions, working alongside industry partners and various stakeholders. Using this immersive transdisciplinary learning experience, participants playfully explore how transformations become possible and visible, and track how such creative shifts in practice might unfold, including beyond this studio. They also question how to make sense of and understand what occurs in such transformative learning situations. The inquiry-driven, experiential approaches in this studio enable participants to develop an appreciation of how questions can be more transforming than answers when working with others.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject contributes specifically to the development of the following course intended learning outcomes:

• Communicate, explore, examine, network and negotiate in ways that extend representation of ideas or perspectives (1.1)
• Explore the relevance and test the value of frameworks, approaches and methods from different fields of inquiry for gaining insights into collective learning contexts and systems (2.1)
• Identify significant issues, challenges or opportunities and assess potential to act creatively, ethically and strategically on them (3.1)

Teaching and learning strategies

Collective learning approaches

In the studio subjects, participants are immersed in complex professional learning / educational challenges that cut across sectors and stakeholders as they work together with external partners and academic researchers to generate new insights and initiatives for action, while also considering the relevance of those developments to their own professional contexts and networks. Learning therefore is highly collaborative and personalised, where participants benefit from interactions with other professionals and also contribute their knowledge, experience and curiosity to the collective’s learning. In the process, participants extend their professional networks and future opportunities for transdisciplinary learning.

Self-paced and face-to-face online learning

Learning in the online studio environment is inquiry-driven, creative and rigorous, where novel ideas and possibilities are imagined, generated and tested on value. The studio therefore involves active learning with professional colleagues, academic researchers and external partners – as well as engagement with cutting ideas in different fields – and provides ongoing opportunities for feedback and “feedforward” from a range of different perspectives and disciplines. The studio space opens up two weeks prior to the official commencement of the subject enabling introductory exploration of ideas and assessments, as well as developing a study plan. Week 1 begins with a face-to-face online seminar, leading into self-paced collective asynchronous learning experiences that run over the first two weeks, enabling participants to engage deeply with key ideas and practices from different disciplines, professions and cultures. Then in Weeks 3 and 4, participants are immersed in intensive face-to-face online workshops on Zoom and collaborative applications to work with their peers, academics and external partners and trial ideas in operation within particular situations. The final self-paced, mentored week provides the space to probe, make sense of and extend what occurred in this studio setting, using different frameworks, philosophical or theoretical perspectives and in terms of learning, designing or inquiry/research.

Professional practice integration

Participants undertake activities collaboratively within the studio collective – whether during the self-paced session or intensive workshops – that are tuned to their professional requirements and interests. Subsequently, the experiences and insights generated within the studio’s collaborative environment provide, for example, rich data and material to interpret, analyse and think with and that subsequently form the basis for individually assessed tasks. In particular, these assessment tasks entail participants considering the emerging possibilities and implications for their own practice, professional context and aspirations. The subject ends with an informal networking opportunity to celebrate achievements and explore openings that have emerged for future action, inquiry and collaboration.

Content (topics)

• Transformation and paradigm shifts
• Worldviews
• Inquiry methods, approaches and techniques
• Generative learning theory
• Anticipatory learning and future-oriented initiatives
• Transdisciplinary learning and ethical challenges

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Creative testing of methods, approaches and frameworks

Assessment task 2: Rethinking a contemporary challenge: An inquiry-inspired transformation

Minimum requirements

Students must make a reasonable attempt to meet the expectations outlined for each assessment task and achieve an overall pass grade in order to pass this subject.