Lightning Talks

Karen Kenny (University of Exeter)
Nicola Clarke (Birmingham City University)
Elizabeth Halstead (UCL)
Elisabeth Herbert (UCL)
Nienke Alberts (Bristol University)
Rachel George (Greenwich University)

Monday, April 7, 2025 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM

LIGHTNING TALKS

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Session Outline

'I'm the tutor!' targeted intervention with PGTs to improve engagement

Karen Kenny (University of Exeter)

This lightning talk will share a pilot intervention carried out in September 2024.

This session was planned as part of the development of a new game to improve our students' understanding of how their tutor can help them. It is well understood that PGT students often receive guidance too late in their time in HE to really help them to achieve (eg. Poobalan, Barrow, & Cleland, 2021), however it is less clear how to practically achieve this.

Work has been dome in the sector to evaluate models of tutoring (Bosch, 2024) which has successfully shown that an embedded model appears to improve engagement with tutor support and perception of tutors themselves.

In the past we have included an introduction to tutoring within the overall induction programme for new PGT students. This would be delivered typically by the Senior Tutor in department, explaining the specific arrangements in place for their students. While delivered with the best of intentions, it is has been accepted that this methods does not ensure that studetns are aware of what is on offer. A combination of overload and, for international students, lack of comprehension, seemed to prevent students from fully understanding what was available to them.

To try to address this gap and thus to improve students experience, and achievement, a game has been imagined, which could help students, in a playful, yet powerful way, to better understand, from the beginning of their programme, what issues they and their fellow students may face, and importantly how their tutor can help them.

In September I worked with 10 groups of between 12 and 20 students in each group, in our School of Education. The aim was to help them to understand, from the beginning of their time with us, the tutoring support that was available. In small groups they were faced with a variety of issues which are common to PGT students in the School of Education, while I explained, one by one, a variety of possible solutions. Their task was to identify the issues which might be helped by the solution I described. The students became ‘The Tutor’, signposting across our departments and campuses.

Work will be done to evaluate this pilot, and to develop the intervention further in order to allow it to be rolled out to more studetns in more departments across the university.

Coffee with ADDed Conversation and A Community of Practice - Empowering Positive Engagement with Academic Advising, A two-Pronged Approach.

Nicola Clarke (Birmingham City University)

An excellent teacher has an ability to influence learners desire to learn (Wood and Su, 2017), but also to establish motivational learning relationships with their students and colleagues. At a minimum "we want to leave students more curious, smarter, more knowledgeable and more skilful than before we taught them" (Brookfield, 2017: 1). As academics, teachers, advisors and personal tutors we need to model this curiosity (Brookfield, 2017). We need to have an interest in our own learning and development of our knowledge base, and we need to create spaces where we can influence each others desire to do so.

The Academic Development Department (ADD) in the faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences (HELS),found conversation in two formats to be a powerful tool for supporting learning. We would like to share the creation of a two pronged, conversational approach to influencing the desire to engage with academic skills.

Coffee with ADDed conversation the first prong, aimed to move away from standard teaching practices, bringing to life academic skills in an informal, accessible and engaging manner. Coffee with ADDed Conversation aimed to provide students with informative, yet unscripted chat-show style videos covering a range of academic skills. This new way of exposing academic conversation brought 'realness' into the classroom (Rogers,1957 and 1967). By sharing our own discussions (and disagreements!), students learn about the thought process behind what makes, for example, a good introduction, or what is involved in using evidence effectively, rather than simply rote learning rules or techniques. In doing this, Coffee with ADDed Conversation models the academic and professional conversation students are required to demonstrate in the different ways they are assessed. The conversation that takes place analyses, evaluates, infers, synthesises ideas and creates new knowledge, demonstrating critical thinking in action (Chatfield, 2018; Cottrell, 2019; Egege 2020).

The second part of our two pronged approach was intentionally aimed at staff. The purpose was to bring staff together across disciplines in the HELS faculty in a space that held a shared value of wishing to embed academic skills in the curriculum. As a result a community of practice (COP) (Wenger et al., 2002) was created that is run monthly where staff come together to ponder and converse about the issue of academic skills in the curriculum, to share knowledge, insights, ideas and develop practices.

The Objectives of this lightning talk are:

1. To Showcase Coffee with ADDed Conversation, and generate thinking among the audience regarding different ways of academic advising for students.

2. To share the benefits of COPs

3. To promote the development of COPS as a way of engendering motivation and curiosity in understanding our own teaching practices, whilst creating a space to knowledge share.

Mental Health and Well-being Special Interest Group

Elizabeth Halstead (UCL); Elisabeth Herbert (UCL); Nienke Alberts (Bristol University); Rachel George (Greenwich University)

This lightening talk will present two pieces of work by the Mental Health and Well-being UKAT Special Interest Group (SIG).

1. Shared Toolkit for personal academic tutors on mental health and well-being training and resources.

2. Practice piece on the interaction between staff and student mental health in a personal academic tutor role: focus on diversity and international students.

This special interest group was started as evidence supports that the role of personal academic tutor has an impact on staff well-being (1). In particular, the considerations of students diverse needs can create an environment where personal academic tutors need additional support and training to meet the needs of students and protect their well-being (2). In this talk, we want to present the development of a UK wide resource for personal academic tutors that will help support their mental health and well-being by presenting key journal articles, blog posts and other resources, and training. Secondly, we will present our initial findings from a practice piece led by the SIG group on staff and student mental health. We will discuss preliminary findings from research conducted by members of the SIG, highlighting expertise within the group on international and diverse student needs. We will include an interactive Menti with audience members for their voice and feedback. To represent the student voice we will present case studies (with permission) from our own experiences and videos from students in addition to those presented in the literature (3).

Learning Outcomes

Kenny, Karen*; Clarke, Nicola*; Halstead, Elizabeth*; Herbert, Elisabeth; Alberts, Nienke; George, Rachel

Bibliography

karen.kenny@exeter.ac.uk*; nicola.clarke@bcu.ac.uk*; l.halstead@ucl.ac.uk*; elisabeth.herbert@ucl.ac.uk; nienke.alberts@bristol.ac.uk; r.george@greenwich.ac.uk

Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring
C3 - Academic advising and tutoring approaches and strategies
C4 - Expected outcomes of academic advising and tutoring
C5 - How equitable and inclusive environments are created and maintained
I5 - The characteristics, needs, and experiences of major and emerging student populations
R1 - Build advising and tutoring relationships through empathetic listening and compassion for students, and be accessible in ways that challenge, support, nurture, and teach
R2 - Communicate in an inclusive and respectful manner
R3 - Motivate, encourage, and support students to recognize their potential, meet challenges, and respect individuality
R4 - Plan and conduct successful advising and tutoring interactions
P1 - Create and support environments that consider the needs and perspectives of students, and respect individual learners
P2 - Appreciate students’ views and cultures, maintain a student-centred approach and mindset, and treat students with sensitivity and fairness
P3 - Commit to students, colleagues, and their institutions through engagement in continuing professional development, scholarly enquiry, and the evaluation of professional practices
P4 - Understand the implications of quality assurance and quality enhancement, and engage in on-going evaluation and development of advising and tutoring practice
R1 - Build advising and tutoring relationships through empathetic listening and compassion for students, and be accessible in ways that challenge, support, nurture, and teach