This year the Warwick Education Conference has blended asynchronous and live events to offer a range of exciting ways share small teaching practices and ideas. These short (10 mins) nano-presentations have been created asynchronously for you to watch and feel inspired at a time and place that suits you.

Leading philosophy seminars implementing a co-creative approach

Zine Making for Zen GTAs

A game-based learning intervention for support classes in Mathematics

Recognising student voice through storytelling to create inclusive learning and teaching in defining authentic leadership

Photo Diary: A tool for social change?

Embedding trauma-informed approaches – our experience of co-creating educator guidance to enhance inclusion in teaching and learning

Leading philosophy seminars implementing a co-creative approach

Giulia Lorenzi (Department of Philosophy)

In this presentation, employing a reflective approach, I discuss how I have made my seminar teaching more open to students’ inputs. Guided by the idea of implementing a better co-creative practice with the intention of developing my students’ autonomy in approaching philosophical debates and critically engage with ideas broadly speaking, I adapted the structure of my seminars and my session planning on the basis of feedback received and ongoing dialogues established with students in my seminar groups. I aim to show how, through a series of different attempts, I have juggled the struggle of covering philosophical contents discussed in the materials intended for the module chosen by the module leader while guiding my students to develop philosophical skills keeping sessions open to their needs and interests.

Type of small teaching: Brief in session or blended learning activities.

View the example handouts referred to in the video.

Zine Making for Zen GTAs

Cherisse Francis (School of Law)

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) occupy the liminal space between teachers and learners. Based on formal and informal feedback, GTAs report feeling a sense of not belonging compounded by their varied teaching experiences as part of module teams and unmet training needs. This can be emotionally and administratively difficult, and even overwhelming, yet, it is a crucially important stage for development into full-time academics. Therefore, my staff co-creator and I executed a zine-making workshop for GTAs. The workshop sought to firstly foster community by creating a 'safe space' for GTAs while simultaneously allowing them to reflect on and share their teaching pedagogy in a non-traditional way. Trained facilitators guided the participants through individual and group activities to achieve the stated aims. It is the learnings from this project and the impact that this will have on future GTA teaching in the Law School that will form the basis of my presentation.

Type of small teaching: Brief in session or blended learning activities.

A game-based learning intervention for support classes in Mathematics

Alvaro Gonzalez Hernandez (Warwick Mathematics Institute)

The purpose of support classes in the Mathematics degree is to present the solutions of exercises related to the materials explained in the lectures. However, in a class with students with a wide range of knowledge, how can one choose the exercises that will be the most useful for the majority of students?

In this session, I will explain a small intervention that I have applied in my support classes using the game-based learning platform Kahoot. Supported by real examples of what has worked for me and what has not, I will provide some tips for anyone interested in implementing a game-based learning intervention in their classes.

Type of small teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.

(Click on this video to open in YouTube)

Recognising student voice through Storytelling to create Inclusive learning and teaching in defining Authentic leadership

Bhagavathy Ramachandran (Warwick Manufacturing Group)

A small intervention that has recently been made in the Leadership module is to invite participants to share Leadership stories from their cultures with a view to better understanding what ‘Authentic leadership’ means to each one and how each student might experience it differently. By drawing on Fielding’s (2010) work on the importance of student voice in creating an inclusive environment, students are encouraged to underscore the centrality of their voices and experiences and co-create their learning experience. By sharing and listening to stories that are more relatable to them, students start to ponder about their life stories and how it has been rendered meaning. As Ibarra and Lineback (2005) discuss in “What’s your story?”, “All of us construct narratives about ourselves-where we've come from, where we're going”. This helps students frame their story about their authentic selves and guides them in answering the in-module assessment question, “Why should anyone by led by me?”

Type of small teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.

You can view an accompanying reference list for this video.

Photo Diary: A tool for social change?

Jo Kukuczka (Academic Development Centre)

This nano presentation introduces a research-informed activity that can be used in and/or out of the classroom to support students' reflection on sustainable development. Specifically, this activity enables students to identify and/or challenge their views and actions related to sustainable development issues such as poverty, (in)equality, climate emergency, or any other related aspects.

This investigation of their relationship with sustainable development is twofold. Firstly, by taking photographs, students individually engage in a deeply personal process of visual documentation of items, physical spaces, events, etc. related to a sustainable development issue of concern. Secondly, they share and discuss those photos with a small group of peers.

This activity has been derived from a social change oriented Photovoice methodology widely used and proven to be effective in healthcare and beyond (Photovoice, 2022; Wang & Burris, 1994), and is one tool for equipping learners to contribute to a sustainable future.

Type of small teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.

Embedding trauma-informed approaches – our experience of co-creating educator guidance to enhance inclusion in teaching and learning

Helen Nolan, Jessica Sinyor (Warwick Medical School), Liz Blagrove (Department of Psychology)

There is growing recognition of the prevalence of trauma experiences among university students, and the intersection of trauma with minoritized student experiences. Recent studies have established the relationship between traumatic experience and poorer educational outcomes. Trauma-informed approaches in education involve adopting principles, practical strategies, and adaptations to mitigate risk of retraumatisation or vicarious trauma, and foster inclusive learning environments. Trauma-informed approaches are increasingly implemented in UK Higher Education in a range of disciplines.

This nano-presentation shares our experience of co-creating a technology-enhanced educator guidance resource in the area of trauma-informed pedagogies, as part of a WIHEA-funded project. We discuss the evidence-base on trauma experiences and impacts in HE, identify principles for trauma-informed teaching and learning, and share practical strategies that can be deployed in learning design and delivery. We present key findings from users’ evaluative feedback, share access to the resource and outline next steps in our project.

Type of small teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.

(Access the transcriptLink opens in a new window for this video)