What I Wish You Knew: a student/advisor listening lab under Chatham House Rule
Monday, April 13, 2026 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM
BELONGING AND MATTERING
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Session Outline
Advising systems often rely on policy, processes, and metrics—but “what helps” is frequently relational and experiential: how communications land, how safe it feels to ask for help, and whether students experience genuine mattering. This workshop creates a structured, psychologically safe space for students and tutors/advisors to surface insight about advising practice without turning the session into a complaint forum or a debate.
Using Chatham House Rule and clear boundaries (no naming individuals, no live cases, no programme-level blame), participants will explore anonymised, theme based prompts collected in advance. The format uses a facilitated “listening lab” structure: students and advisors respond to curated questions, reflect back what they heard, and translate themes into practical changes. The emphasis is on patterns not people, and on identifying small, high leverage adjustments that improve belonging, clarity, and confidence to seek help.
The session concludes with a codesigned set of repeatable actions at three levels: (1) advising micro-behaviours (language, invitation, follow-up); (2) student-facing expectations that support agency; and (3) institutional friction points (handoffs, signposting, timing) that can be improved without curriculum redesign. Delegates will leave with a facilitation template they can reuse in their own contexts, including ground rules, question curation guidance, and an ethical/safeguarding protocol for handling disclosures and signposting appropriately.
Learning Outcomes
2. Use a structured Listening Lab to foster two-way active listening and collaboratively address friction points in advising to the benefit both students and staff.
Bibliography
Zimmerman, B.J. (2002) ‘Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview’, Theory Into Practice, 41(2), pp. 64–70.
Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Heckman, J.J. and Kautz, T. (2012) ‘Hard evidence on soft skills’, Labour Economics, 19(4), pp. 451–464.
Kautz, T. et al. (2014) Fostering and measuring skills: improving cognitive and non-cognitive skills. OECD.
Sailer, M. and Homner, L. (2020) ‘The gamification of learning: A meta-analysis’, Educational Psychology Review, 32, pp. 77–112.
Jisc (2015) Code of practice for learning analytics.
Jisc (2020) Code of practice for wellbeing and mental health analytics.
Walton, G.M. and Cohen, G.L. (2011) ‘A brief social-belonging intervention…’, Science, 331, pp. 1447–1451.
Yeager, D.S. et al. (2020) ‘What can be learned from growth mindset controversies?’, American Psychologist.
Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring
C3 - Academic advising and tutoring approaches and strategies
R2 - Communicate in an inclusive and respectful manner
I7 - Data and information technology applicable to tutoring