Shah A., Treby E., May V., Walsh P.. 2007. Bridging the divide between academia and practitioners: Training coastal zone managers.. Ocean & Coastal Management..

Aim/objectives: 

Describes teaching strategies used in a Masters program for Coastal Zone Management (CZM), which is helping to bridge the gap between academic study and practice.

Geographic Focus: 

Methods: 

Key Findings: 

Teaching programs for sustainable coastal management have a requirement to acknowledge the understandings, behaviours and learning of related coastal organisations and practitioners. This requires the necessary skills demanded by employees to be embedded within teaching curriculum. Teaching methods should also incorporate relevant case studies, use of field-based experience and involvement of experienced practitioners. Collaborations with practitioners in the academic curriculum for CZM often lead to increased understanding and cross-flow of ideas. The combination of relevant experiential knowledge from practitioners and academic insights can contribute toward sustainable teaching programmes and can significantly improve working relationships between academics and practitioners in integrated coastal zone management.

Lessons: 

Adaptive learning is a communicative process. It functions through networks or partnerships and as a result of trust-building and shared understandings. This article provides some practical advice for building some of these elements into tertiary teaching programs.