Dr Helena Bender
Contact: hbender@unimelb.edu.au
About:
Helena is a teaching specialist based in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences. She is also a Shepherd for the Trinity Environment, Development & Design subject. Helena joined BRITE Lab to be able to share and discuss teaching and learning scholarship.
Areas of Expertise in Teaching Practice:
- Teaching and assessing skills
- Using tools and strategies to promote active, conceptual and collaborative learning
- Designing Tutorial, Workshop and Practical classes
- Facilitating and teaching field trips
Educational Research Areas of Interest:
- Sustainability
- Experiential Learning Opportunities
- Scaffold students’ learning within online learning platforms, such as like Perusall
- Assessment & Rubric Design to support learning
- Higher-order thinking approaches
- VCA Environmental Science
Current Research:
Helena is interested in experiential learning that has a sustainability focus. She has been working on:
- Investigating ways to integrate sustainability into subjects in ways that will build students understanding of sustainability and how they can affect change
- How best to scaffold students’ learning within online learning platforms like Perusall
Educational Research Publications:
- Browne, G., Bender, H., Bradley, J. & Pang, A. (2020). Evaluation of a tertiary sustainability experiential learning program. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 21(4): 699-715. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-08-2019-0241
Educational Research Grants & Awards:
- 2019 – University of Melbourne Learning and Teaching Initiative, Sustainability-based learning database University of Melbourne Learning and Teaching Initiative 2014
- 2014 – Smartphone App for field-based experiential and iterative learning (Field Friend), Collier Charitable Fund
- 2013 – University of Melbourne Learning and Teaching Initiative 2013, Integration of the LMS and Blackboard Mobile Learn application for Reshaping Environments
- 2012 – University of Melbourne Learning and Teaching Initiative, Towards a common assessment process approach for Bachelor of Environments tutors
Educational Conferences:
- CSHE Symposium (2011)
- Practical application of interdisciplinary process AARE (2010)
- Chair of a symposium on constructing an interdisciplinary textbook VC Colloquium (2009) Interdisciplinarity practice