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Student engagement: What is it and why does it matter?
Teaching Insights shares staff and student voices, asking and answering questions, and showcasing examples of effective teaching and learning practices. How do our conversations and authors’ contributions align with the scholarly debate on improving student engagement?
Continue reading “Student engagement: What is it and why does it matter?”“What do you want to get out of this?”
What happens when you invite staff and students, from different disciplines and learning traditions, to a conversation on the topic of improving student engagement? Would their experiences and views be similar or shaped by their diverse backgrounds? Would the conversation generate new insights that they could take into their practice as teachers and learners?
Continue reading ““What do you want to get out of this?””Community, cameras and challenging the status quo
In this issue’s Peer Review, our panel answers your questions on how to help students take risks in their learning, feel they belong, and turn their cameras on! Sharing their perspectives are students Sumaiya Shaikh and Jigyasha Kathrani, and staff member Dr Louise Taylor (Bunce).
Continue reading “Community, cameras and challenging the status quo”Latest Articles
Geography at Oxford Brookes University
We bring together recent graduates who share their memories of studying at university with a member of their teaching staff. Nia, Max and George talk with Professor Helen Walkington and look back on studying Geography at Oxford Brookes University. Together they discuss their experiences and reflections on our theme, improving student engagement.
Continue reading “Geography at Oxford Brookes University”Personal cartography: An induction activity to support new student engagement
An induction project for first year students in September 2019 was to create a personal cartography of the University’s campus. This helped students to explore and record the campus in a visual way that was meaningful for them. Students identified landmarks and topological features that held personal significance to help with orientation and settling into the university environment.
Continue reading “Personal cartography: An induction activity to support new student engagement”Playful learning with origami ‘fortune tellers’
To increase engagement with a reflective writing assessment, I incorporated the use of origami ‘fortune tellers’ in an activity where students discussed the marking criteria in relation to three reflective writing examples. The activity demonstrates how playful and active learning can aid reflective thinking and writing skills. My inspiration for this activity came from this CreativeHE blog post.
Continue reading “Playful learning with origami ‘fortune tellers’”Four ways I successfully engaged as a student
From the start of my medical career, I have been a strong advocate of prevention. I counsel my patients on prevention and risk factors even before early detection of diseases. My enthusiasm for this led me to pursue my Master’s degree in Public Health. In this contribution, I share what has been working for me as a successful and highly engaged student.
Continue reading “Four ways I successfully engaged as a student”Developing study skills: My advice as a student with learning difficulties
Throughout university, something I have done which helped me become more engaged with my studies has been going to tutoring sessions offered by the student support services in my university. As a student with a few learning difficulties, I have regular meetings with a study skills tutor. In these meetings, I can discuss any issues or concerns that I have with my assignments…
Continue reading “Developing study skills: My advice as a student with learning difficulties”The key to my engagement? Collaborative working
The sharing and exchange of knowledge between my colleagues and I was supported by a collaborative studio environment. Having this space enabled groups of different students to form naturally, making it conducive for the exchange of a diverse range of ideas and academic knowledge.
Continue reading “The key to my engagement? Collaborative working”From ‘consumer’ to learner: A workshop for developing students’ identities as learners
A workshop (described in this article) was developed to enable students to reflect critically on the notion that they are ‘consumers’ of their education and to support them to develop stronger identities as learners. All materials to run the workshop are freely available at www.brookes.ac.uk/SIIP and specific details are available for educators who would like to run this workshop with their students.
Continue reading “From ‘consumer’ to learner: A workshop for developing students’ identities as learners”Working with students as partners in curriculum co-creation
In order to explore how we might embed graduate employability into our curriculum, we invited academic staff, undergraduate students, graduates of our course, careers advisors and potential employers to work in mixed teams to co-create viable methods for optimising the employability of our students and graduates. The overall aims of the work were two-fold: to boost students’ employability
Continue reading “Working with students as partners in curriculum co-creation”Warming up: Using icebreakers and small group work to build learning communities online
I was involved in the design of learning activities for a new module for first year student nurses. The students had not had the opportunity to form relationships with their peers or faculty as their programme had moved online due to Covid-19. In order for the students to feel engaged as part of a learning community, I encouraged the use of icebreakers during seminars.
Continue reading “Warming up: Using icebreakers and small group work to build learning communities online”Reading lists as a pedagogical tool: Lessons learnt from Covid-19
During the first UK lockdown in spring 2020, like our colleagues around the country, Oxford Brookes Academic Liaison Librarians (ALLs) had scrambled to locate alternative online access to key resources for panicking students who had left Oxford at very short notice, and who were trying to finish assignments and dissertations without physical access to the Library. This experience made us determined to work with our academic colleagues to plan for easier…
Continue reading “Reading lists as a pedagogical tool: Lessons learnt from Covid-19”Speed research pods: A flexible tool for collaborative and authentic learning experiences
Peering at rows of busy frames with small, static faces and navigating staccato speaking cues is not exactly the perfect recipe for comfortable, collaborative or creative classroom sessions! Whilst Zoom has enabled valuable synchronous learning opportunities and ensured a vital continuation of learning during the pandemic, it has not been without its challenges for teaching. In particular, in encouraging meaningful student engagement.
Continue reading “Speed research pods: A flexible tool for collaborative and authentic learning experiences”The map to success: How mind-mapping helped me become a curious and self-directed learner
This is my story of when everything clicked. One day, a lecturer was explaining a concept in criminology, using sociology. At that moment, I became aware of all the existing connections between the subjects I was studying. From that point on, I started creating mind-maps to visually represent the connections of everything I had learnt in a particular week. Explaining an unknown concept using information from other subjects became second nature.
Continue reading “The map to success: How mind-mapping helped me become a curious and self-directed learner”The power of storytelling: Re-writing childhood stories to foster student engagement
This activity invites students to re-write their favourite childhood story by inserting themselves as modern-day protagonists in their contemporary socio-cultural contexts. The activity was practiced in an undergraduate Sociology course in which students were learning about the connection between personal experiences and social issues, as well as concepts related to positionality and social life.
Continue reading “The power of storytelling: Re-writing childhood stories to foster student engagement”