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Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning

In 2018 I joined the Education Portfolio in The University of Sydney’s Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor as a Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Education. As part of this team I engaged in curriculum development and project-based teaching for the University of Sydney’s new Industry and Community Project Units.

This program of inquiry-based learning fosters the expression of disciplinary depth while cultivating interdisciplinary effectiveness. Industry and Community Project Units require students to work within teams from disciplines across the University to identify challenges, recognise opportunities, and make recommendations to industry and community partners to solve real-world complex problems.

As a project supervisor in Industry and Community Project Units, I have gained an appreciation of the role of moral and intellectual character traits in undertaking inquiry-based learning, working in teams and solving complex problems.

In recognition of my teaching excellence, I was nominated for the Wayne Lonergan Award for Outstanding Teaching (2020) and Excellence in Teaching Award (2021). You can read more about my pedagogical commitments in this co-authored Teaching@Sydney piece with Dr Jessica Kean.

I have an emerging interest in scholarship on teaching and learning, particularly teaching for moral and epistemic virtue. I recently delivered a paper on this topic titled “Learning as Character Formation: Ethics and Critical Thinking in an Interdisciplinary Context” in the DVC-E Brown Bag Seminar Series.

If you’d like to discuss what it’s like to teach in this innovative context or how you might embed moral and epistemic virtues in your teaching, contact me at laura.kotevska [at] sydney.edu.au