Teaching & Learning

" When the first day of class comes around, you’ve reflected on your course goals and structure, gathered your syllabus together, shared materials in Canvas, and prepared your first day of class presentation. How do you then establish a relationship with your students? How do you talk with them on the first day? How do you set the tone?” (Cathy Bovill, January 2020, Georgetown University) Drawing on her most recent work, ‘Co-creating Learning and Teaching: Towards relational pedagogy in higher education’ (April 2020), Cathy Bovill explored the concept of relational pedagogy using the classroom as a focus for curriculum co-creation. We can often think that co-creation might only be available to small groups of students working closely with a member of staff, as might also be suggested of many student partnership activities. However, this seminar challenges this idea and explores how co-creation has the potential in both classroom and online class teaching settings to include all students in developing relationships and shared decision making. The seminar suggests that in the pivot to online delivery these opportunities should be maximised. Using her current research and time as a Fulbright Scholar (based at Elon University), Cathy shares examples from university and school settings, to set the challenge to participants to identify ways in which their presence in the classroom (online or otherwise) might be used to positively shape their learning and teaching practice in a way that demonstrates a care for their students thus building a more positive student learning experience. This seminar enabled participants to: Understand and explore the concept of relational pedagogy in a face-to-face and online environment Reflect on how their own experience in ‘whole-class’ engagement practices contribute to an engaged learning environment Consider how their own understandings and definitions of student engagement, partnership and co-creation impact their professional practice Identify and plan the practical/impactful methods/approaches that could be implemented in learning environments to support a whole-class resulting in a more inclusive experience for all students."

" When the first day of class comes around, you’ve reflected on your course goals and structure, gathered your syllabus together, shared materials in Canvas, and prepared your first day of class presentation. How do you then establish a relationship with your students? How do you talk with them on the first day? How do you set the tone?” (Cathy Bovill, January 2020, Georgetown University) Drawing on her most recent work, ‘Co-creating Learning and Teaching: Towards relational pedagogy in higher education’ (April 2020), Cathy Bovill explored the concept of relational pedagogy using the classroom as a focus for curriculum co-creation. We can often think that co-creation might only be available to small groups of students working closely with a member of staff, as might also be suggested of many student partnership activities. However, this seminar challenges this idea and explores how co-creation has the potential in both classroom and online class teaching settings to include all students in developing relationships and shared decision making. The seminar suggests that in the pivot to online delivery these opportunities should be maximised. Using her current research and time as a Fulbright Scholar (based at Elon University), Cathy shares examples from university and school settings, to set the challenge to participants to identify ways in which their presence in the classroom (online or otherwise) might be used to positively shape their learning and teaching practice in a way that demonstrates a care for their students thus building a more positive student learning experience. This seminar enabled participants to: Understand and explore the concept of relational pedagogy in a face-to-face and online environment Reflect on how their own experience in ‘whole-class’ engagement practices contribute to an engaged learning environment Consider how their own understandings and definitions of student engagement, partnership and co-creation impact their professional practice Identify and plan the practical/impactful methods/approaches that could be implemented in learning environments to support a whole-class resulting in a more inclusive experience for all students."

"At this seminar participants were given an opportunity to explore approaches, strategies and methodologies for creating and maintaining a classroom environment which promotes learning. Topics such as the use of learning environment checklists, positive behavior interventions and dealing with the disruptive student were discussed. The workshop examined the work of educators such as Ken Bain, Phil Race and Bill Rogers as well as drawing from expertise from within CIT."

Stephen Brookfield talks about how when teaching something that we love, how difficult it is for us to empathise with students that find the topic boring. The more that we teach the topic, the further removed we become from our first experiences of learning it and the less empathy we are likely to have. Yet empathy and respect strongly correlate with student motivation and motivation is essential to developing understanding. This, final session will explore the importance of empathy and respect.