Ann Smith

Highly Commended, Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence

---

College of Business and Economics

Synopsis

Right from the start, teaching MGMT7250 (Evidence-based Management) was a challenge: how could I bring decades of industry experience to enhance the study of research methods in service to real-world decision-making?

Now, having convened diverse classes online, hybrid, and in-person, ranging in size from 2 to 200 students, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and with students ranging from pre-experience through to MBA candidates, I have trialled and refined a range of student-focused approaches and those students are taking their learnings from their studies and applying them in their workplaces, sometimes even before the class is finished.

The journey from challenge to achievement of the goal to bring the rigor of research methods to business practice draws on my years of industry practice to inform my teaching of evidence-based decision-making and practice at the Australian National University since 2018. My collegiate approach to teaching recognises the importance of multiple perspectives as well as context in shaping students’ learning. My evidence-based approach to course and assessment design draws on student feedback as well as the literature of adult learning to create respectful, stimulating, student-focused learning environments.

Blurring the boundary between learning and practice, taken together these approaches develop students’ metacognitive capacities and enable them to continue their learning journey long after their formal education ends.

(Photo by Rafael Florez)