DrKaori Yokochi

With over 15 years of tertiary teaching experience in Biology and Environmental Science fields, at the heart of my teaching is a student-centred philosophy that champions accessibility, belonging and development of authentic skills that are relevant in our current, rapidly changing world. I know this sounds like just another generic educator statement filled with ‘buzz words’, but it is genuinely what I hold close to my heart and practice. I aspire to create supportive learning environments where all students feel comfortable challenging themselves and can confidently participate in learning regardless of their background or prior experience.

I enjoy interacting with students and am passionate about supporting the next generation of ecologists, conservationist and sustainability professionals who will inspire people and make differences. For them to be able to do so, we need to provide strategically scaffolded, authentic learning experiences throughout their degrees, including field experiences. I teach into all year levels of Bachelor of Environmental Science degrees (both the Wildlife and Sustainability courses) and actively scaffold skills development between units I teach. For example, in the first-year foundation unit, I focus on supporting students develop skills to become independent learners, and explicitly teach skills they will need in their courses and future careers, including feedback literacy, evaluation of credible information, clear scientific communication, data management, and strategies to manage emotional wellbeing as environmental scientists and professionals. In the second year, I focus more on technical, discipline-specific skills such as data collection in field and statistical analyses, and in the third year, I focus more on applying skills and knowledges learnt in the course to real-world environmental issues and developing solutions.

I have received multiple awards for my teaching practice, and some examples of my teaching can be found in:

·         CRADLE’s “Designing Assessment for Inclusion and Assurance of Learning” (Case study 1, page 4),

·         Deakin Learning Futures’ Tales 4 Teaching, Episode 7 “Moving pracs and fieldwork online in weeks”

·         “Scaffolding and scaling career education and WIL” at Deakin PebblePad Minibash 2022