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Unit Summary

Unit type

UG Coursework Unit

Credit points

12

AQF level

7

Level of learning

Advanced

Former School/College

Former School of Environment, Science and Engineering

Unit aim

Explores the emergence of holistic, complex, adaptive systems approaches to thinking and knowledge, compared with reductionist science and mechanistic understandings of nature. Examines human ecology, including the role of different belief systems and their impact on ecological perspectives, which in turn influence individual and communal behaviour. Considers the role of ecological literacy in the context of regenerative agriculture. Students explore their connection to the environment, to systems and to holistic thinking through theory and practice.

Unit content

  • The integral role of self-knowledge in farming practice and land management
  • Mechanistic models, complex adaptive systems and regenerative agriculture
  • Building reductionism and holism into a framework of understanding
  • Demonstrating how holism functions in ecosystem management
  • Ecological perspectives, human ecology and ecological literacy
  • The challenge of paradox in complex systems
  • The influence of human perspectives in regenerative agriculture

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

GA1: , GA2: , GA3: , GA4: , GA5: , GA6: , GA7:
On completion of this unit, students should be able to: GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 compare mechanistic and complex adaptive systems worldviews and how this influences ecological perspectives
2 demonstrate the capacity to undertake reflective analysis on the relationship between worldview and land management
3 demonstrate the capacity to describe and interpret one’s relationship with the natural world
4 describe the role of both reductionistic and holistic approaches to science and agricultural practice

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. compare mechanistic and complex adaptive systems worldviews and how this influences ecological perspectives
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  2. demonstrate the capacity to undertake reflective analysis on the relationship between worldview and land management
    • GA2:
  3. demonstrate the capacity to describe and interpret one’s relationship with the natural world
    • GA2:
    • GA5:
  4. describe the role of both reductionistic and holistic approaches to science and agricultural practice
    • GA4:
    • GA5: