Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL)

Inclusive Structures and Care-Rooted Approaches - How does IATL do it?

IATL is the nest for education innovation at Warwick and aims to advance the academic discourse on Inclusive Structures and Care-Rooted Approaches and to create models for their implementation.

Discover how IATL achieves this exploring practical examples that can benefit you and your Department:

Supporting Mature and Part-time StudentsLink opens in a new window

IATL contributed to an OfS-funded project, entitled Positive Digital PracticesLink opens in a new window, which involved a collaboration with the Open University, the University of Bradford, and Student Minds. Dr Elena Riva (IATL), led the positive project pedagogies project, establishing inclusive, compassionate practices in technology-enhanced learning that supported mental well-being.

Part of this project specifically looked at inclusive practices to support students' sense of belonging and wellbeing within the learning setting. Mature, part-time, commuter and distance-learning students often experience feelings of isolation and lack of integration within their learning community.

The project findingsLink opens in a new window identified the learning environment as a crucial place where inclusion can be fostered and championed through teaching practices, by i) promoting problem- and team-based learning among mature students as a means to generate cohesion, and ii) identifying with students suitable pedagogic practices that can be adapted and applied across modules and learning opportunities to foster an enhanced sense of belonging.

Giving Voice to the PGR Community

IATL's Elena Riva, together with Louise Gracia (WBS), co-led a cross-institutional pedagogic intervention entitled 'Potential Advantage' aimed at improving the supervisory experience of Warwick's PGR community.

The OfS-funded project took place between 2018-20 with Warwick receiving an investment of £276,000. Interventions, such as workshops and activities, were offered to over 100 PGR students and used problem-based and team-based practices to solve issues affecting their learning and well-being.

The national importance of these pioneering participatory pedagogy practices was featured in the THELink opens in a new window, while an article assessing the value of using co-creation to tackle common issues experienced within the supervisory relationship was published in the Journal of Further and Higher Education.Link opens in a new window

Inspiring EU policy

Appointed by the European Commission for their expertise and research in the field, Dr. Elena Riva and Wiki Jeglinska (IATL), along with Prof. Kate Lister from Arden University, have compiled a report exploring mental health and well-being issues for staff and students in European higher education, examining institutional and national approaches to support mental health, and providing recommendations to shape the European Union prospective policies aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing across Higher Education Institutions through holistic, whole-institution approaches.

Explore the report 'Student and staff mental well-being in European higher education institutions - NESET' Link opens in a new windowand engage with the subsequent call for action published by WonkHE 'Helping students means taking university staff wellbeing seriously'.Link opens in a new window

Improving Student Wellbeing LiteracyLink opens in a new window

IATL has led on the co-creation of the online module Understanding WellbeingLink opens in a new window, open to all students.

This ground-breaking module has been taken by over 7000 Warwick students and adopted by 3 other UK Institutions and by the University of Copenhagen.Link opens in a new window

With support from the Enhancing Research Culture Link opens in a new windowFund, IATL is initiating a project focused on co-creating wellbeing literacy resources tailored specifically for PhD students and postdoctoral staff, ‘Building Wellbeing Literacy’Link opens in a new window

.

Delivering the 'Community Values' Education ProgrammeLink opens in a new window

IATL's previous Director, Professor Jonathan Heron, was the Academic Lead for the Community Values Education project, initially co-led with the Dean of Students' Office, established to develop activities and resources to promote a strong values-driven community at the University of Warwick.

The aim was to develop an environment that promoted equality of opportunity, values diversity, and where students and staff could work and study free from discrimination and harassment. Initial work included developing the Active Bystander Intervention Workshops and a range of values-based teaching activitiesLink opens in a new window.

Supporting Inclusive Structures and Care-Rooted Approaches across Warwick and BeyondLink opens in a new window

With its Funding opportunitiesLink opens in a new window, IATL supports the development and delivery of projects, led by staff and students, that aim to trial or disseminate Inclusive Structures and Care-Rooted Approaches across Warwick and beyond.

Engage with some of the pioneering projects supported by IATL, which range from creating safe spaces for staff and students to exploring support mechanisms for the wellness of the Black Community, from amplifying the voices of students with chronic illnesses to developing Anti-Racist pedagogies, from creating a Code of Practice for disabled students to the inaugural pilot of the now nationally renowned School Tasking initiative, and more:

Discover moreLink opens in a new window