https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33781 2026-07-28T19:13:50Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/35304 Sites of productive messiness: The critical need for Business Schools to develop and integrate the capabilities for effective and impactful business and management education research Bryant, Peter This working paper argues that business and management education research is a mission‑critical yet undervalued domain within contemporary Business Schools. It examines structural, cultural, and metric-driven factors that marginalise educational research, including journal rankings, research assessment frameworks, and institutional reward systems. Drawing on Humboldtian principles and Boyer’s scholarship model, the paper conceptualises business education research as a third space, where teaching and research intersect in productive yet complex and messy ways. This space is characterised by “productive messiness,” enabling reflexivity, innovation, and the translation of theory into practice. The paper contends that strengthening this nexus is essential for pedagogical quality, student outcomes, institutional legitimacy, and competitive advantage in a disrupted higher education landscape. It proposes the Business Education Research Capability (BERC) framework, outlining key capabilities required for impactful educational research. Ultimately, the paper calls for systemic recognition, integration, and development of educational research to support the long-term sustainability and societal contribution of Business Schools. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/35151 Chaos and calm in the lecture theatre: Transforming the lecture by creating and sustaining interactivity at scale Bryant, Peter The lecture remains one of the most enduring and contested pedagogical forms in higher education, despite sustained criticism of its limitations for student engagement and active learning. In the wake of the COVID‑19 pandemic, rising student disengagement, and renewed pressures on universities to teach at scale, this conceptual paper re-examines the lecture not as a failed pedagogy, but as an under-designed social and spatial form. Drawing on theories of social space, interactivity, and immersive learning, the paper argues that the central challenge of contemporary lecturing is not transmission, but the creation and sustainment of meaningful interactivity at scale. Using the metaphor of chaos and calm, the paper explores how learning oscillates between structured, performative moments and noisy, social knowledge production, and how purposeful pedagogical design can harness both states productively. It critiques common interventions such as flipped learning and audience response systems for often reproducing passivity or fragmented engagement and instead proposes a framework of six design challenges (architecture, audience, quiet/loud dynamics, systems, accessibility, and transitional space) that shape interactivity in large cohorts. The paper concludes by demonstrating how spatial, technological, and pedagogical alignment, exemplified through the CONNECTSpace case, can transform lectures into social learning environments that foster connection, agency, and transformative learning without abandoning the economic and institutional realities of scale. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/35150 Navigating the dissonances of authenticity in assessment: Redefining the value and impact of authentic assessment in an era of generative crisis Bryant, Peter Higher education assessment is experiencing a renewed crisis, intensified by the successive shocks of the COVID‑19 pandemic and the rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence. In response, universities have reverted to familiar, compliance‑oriented assessment practices (most notably high‑stakes, invigilated examinations) often at the expense of pedagogical expertise, (student agency, and trust. This working paper interrogates the contemporary positioning of authentic assessment and argues that its value has been simultaneously overextended as a panacea and underdeveloped as a rigorous framework for assessment for learning. Drawing on philosophical conceptions of authenticity, liminality, and trust, alongside critical scholarship on assessment, marketisation, and managerialism in higher education, the paper reframes authentic assessment as a relational, meaning‑making practice rather than a fixed set of task characteristics or employability proxies. It contends that assessment systems have become increasingly shaped by fear, scale, and auditability, fracturing their capacity to support learning amid uncertainty and transition, conditions that define both student experience and contemporary professional life. The paper proposes a redefinition of authentic assessment grounded in three interrelated dimensions: epistemological authenticity, educational authenticity, and experiential authenticity. Together, these dimensions foreground learning through assessment, recognise students’ reflexive and ontological states, and situate assessment within the lived contexts of work, life, and play. The paper concludes that authentic assessment, when purposefully designed and enacted, offers a credible pathway for rebuilding trust between students, academics, institutions, and society in an era of generative crisis—without abandoning the legitimate demands of assurance, quality, and academic standards. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/34767 CONNECTSpace Project: Final Report Bryant, Peter; Alderton, Zoe The CONNECTSpace at the University of Sydney Business School represents a major intervention in learning space innovation, designed to support the Connected Learning at Scale (CLaS) curriculum transformation program. Conceived as a flat floor, collaborative learning environment timetabled for 160 students from the Business School and the Faculty of Engineering, the space was co designed by academic and professional staff and students to challenge foundational assumptions about university teaching spaces. Its design sought to reorient the centre of pedagogical gravity away from teacher centred performance and towards student driven connected learning, emphasising the creation, leverage, and activation of peer networks as core components of the learning experience. This report has three aims: first, to critically examine the design decisions underpinning the space and evaluate how these choices cultivate the capacities required for connected learning at scale. Second, it investigates the epistemological activities and affective responses elicited by the space, drawing on early experiences of students and educators during the first year of operation. Third, it provides insights analogous to a post occupancy review, reflecting on how the space functions in real pedagogical practice. While not an architectural or technological evaluation, the report foregrounds the lived teaching and learning experiences of the staff and students who have “resided, bent, broken, and learned” within the CONNECTSpace. The ongoing 2025 pilot demonstrates how the space continues to evolve as technologies mature, staff literacy deepens, and new learning environments emerge across the institution. 2026-01-27T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/33793 Connected Learning at Scale: Strategic Project Evaluation Report Bryant, Peter; Wilson, Stephanie; Huber, Elaine; Cram, Andrew; Menner, Ryan; Norman, Adrian; Prieto Alvarez, Carlos The Connected Learning at Scale: Strategic Project Evaluation Report provides a summary of the CLaS project, explains the co-design process used, summarises the project outcomes, notes the global outreach of the project, highlights core research output, and presents the future for the important lessons learned. 2025-04-07T00:00:00Z