Speaker 1: The unit that I'm teaching at the moment is called Culture, Diversity and Health and at the moment we have 865 students enrolled so it's one of the large common units that exist within all of these specializations and it really focuses on the concepts and the theories about culture and diversity within Australia and it teaches students about how to understand the various cultural groups or the various activities that they'll need to be able to understand to engage with them. It has a strong focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander competencies because in Australia that's often the group that is underrepresented in terms of health and learning so the students are actually trained in cultural competency when they actually go out into the field to be able to engage with various cultural and diverse

Speaker 2: groups within our national and global community.

Speaker 1: And you can clearly see how space and place makes a difference. Now there is segregation in the sense that they mention that the more affluent you become the better job that you have people tend to move out and there's areas where oh those are the poor people, those are the people with low education so I've moved, I'm moving up, right? There's this aspect of keeping up with the Joneses in that respect. I really try to bring the student into the content that I'm teaching so instead of simply discussing the concepts and theories in relation to evidence which is really important in relation to rigorous research which is great, I have that information on slides but what I do is I actually give examples and personify to the student what those concepts actually mean, what it is in real human life and the students really seem to enjoy that because they begin to understand that they already know this information. I'm just tacking on some lovely jargon but at the same time indicating to them that it's information that they can access. So in Sydney we know that there is an economic divide. We know that some people don't seem to make enough money to live and quite interestingly people point the finger at those individuals at that moment. That's the moment when people say well it's your fault you're not living well, it's your fault that you live in this neighbourhood. So if you remember I told you that I moved from Liverpool to Ingleburn Gardens and you know I wanted to have a lovely green space for my family and we have our own backyard, there's pools and all this type of stuff but not everyone has that opportunity to do that. Now in Sydney there isn't a lot of data that really highlights this issue but what I want to show you is an example from Glasgow and what I want you to take note of is that it's not simply just those five social determinants that I talked to you about. And so by bringing them into the content and bringing it to them versus just lecturing at them I think they get the true experience of feeling as though they're learning because learning is about engaging, learning is about connecting to ideologies, ideas and students really get that sense when I participate with them in the learning.

Speaker 3: So where is the place in Britain where the gulf in life expectancy is at its starkest? Glasgow.

Speaker 1: I find news stories, popular media, I find current affairs that the students would be familiar with to link to the concept. So I know my content well enough that when it's up on the PowerPoint I'm not talking you know directly about what's on the screen or reading from it. I'm actually providing nuance, providing context, providing information so that the students can build a picture of oh that's what this you know fancy sociological word means. It's actually really about bringing the knowledge to them and indicating to them that they know this stuff, they've seen it, they can connect with it. You're gaining too much weight or you're not eating healthy food and it's your fault, you should have willpower. You should be able to stay away from those foods. Now you'll see when I compare Mount Druitt and Mossman why that's not so much the case. One of the biggest things that people or you know academics are sometimes worried about is moving away from the lectern and I would say that is the most important no matter what you are teaching. And because I teach in such large rooms with up to two, three hundred students at a time you could easily lose people. Moving around so I go to the students, I detach myself from the lectern so that students can actually see that breakdown in you know knowledge hierarchy that I'm not up here and they're down here somewhere. We're on the same footing, I'm coming to you, let's have a conversation. So students feel as though I'm talking to each and every single one because I move around so that they get that sense that no one is being missed out and so moving away from the lectern is facilitated by the lapel bank and by the remote clicker. And really you know you don't need to be at the lectern and that's what I'm really experiencing and what the students really appreciate is that I'm not just waiting you know for their feedback but what I'm actually doing is going to get it. For a unit that's talking about diversity and inclusivity this is a great way to do it. Hopefully you remember some of the content from last week but why might it be that over time Australia becomes more comfortable with migrant groups? Why might that be? I'm sorry? They adapt to changes in the environment? Anyone else? Better understanding of people? Yes ma'am? They become a cultural norm? Anything else? Assimilation, right? Because those people become more alike. Remember we talked about and we used me as a guinea pig about how assimilated

Speaker 2: I was, right? How well I could just fit. In order to understand how you can drop 15 years of your life just by crossing a few streets, let's start by giving Danny the national average number of years of life.

Speaker 3: One of the ways that I guess I provide information to students that helps to personify and create

Speaker 1: a sense of you know humanness to the information that I present is using YouTube videos which is which are things that they could find. Things that they could find on the internet Things that are accessible to them as well and showing them that the information that we're talking about in the unit is linked to things that they already know. Google Maps for instance. So it's easy to just you know go into Google Maps and say I want to find all the McDonald's in the area and then you find them. I want to find all the parks in the area and you find them and this is what I said in the lecture. I said you know you can find this yourself. It's not like I'm presenting it to you. It's not like I'm presenting to you anything new. This information is there. You can do it too. And I think that gives students a sense of confidence that hey wait a minute. This is accessible. This is information that I have and technology facilitates that and it's not difficult. It's not difficult technology. It's stuff that academics use all the time.

Speaker 2: People often

Speaker 1: like to think, especially as I told you before in week three, that Australia is an individualist culture. However all the decisions that you make do have an impact on other people. So to kind of demonstrate that to you I need ten people who are willing to help me today. So if you can come on down. Yes sir. Thank you so much. When students I guess come and help me in terms of demonstrating a concept or a topic then it's more accessible to their peers as well. It's not just me versus 300. It's actually people they know. People who they associate with. People who they understand who are coming to demonstrate this concept. So what I want each person to do is in addition to staying a meter away from Matt, pick two other people that are not beside you and stay a meter away from them as well. And I think they really begin to see that it's not just stuff in textbooks. That we can actually use ourselves, use our experiences and engage with one's peers to actually see the reality of these concepts. And they'll remember that. They'll always remember that Dr. Doon did this really cool thing in class where the students came up and moved around. These ideas are available on the internet. You can Google activities to do with large groups. Activities to engage students. So it's not anything novel or new that I'm coming up with. It's just going to get the resources so that on the student's end learning becomes so much easier.