Developing Learning Communities Workshop with Dr. Fiona Handley

1. DEVELOPING LEARNING COMMUNITIES WORKSHOP Dr Fiona Handley, Centre for Learning and teaching

2. Today we are going to • Introduce the project • Hear about your ideas for projects • Think about partnership working and what it means • Complete some paperwork

3. What is the Initiative? Developing Learning Communities is a cross University initiative that focusses on creating a sense of belonging and developing a community based on mutual respect amongst students and staff, focussing on partnership working to enhance the learning and teaching environment. It will focus on: • staff-student partnership working • inclusive practice • wellbeing including digital wellbeing • Internationalising and decolonising the curriculum

4. Staff and students working in partnership

5. Inclusive practice University of Brighton Draft Principles of Inclusive Practice • Inclusive Practice creates a resource-rich learning eco-system that is collegiate, critical, positive and promotes equality and diversity by mainstreaming accessibility whilst responding to individual students

6. Types of activity

7. Wellbeing & resilience "Feeling happy is a part of mental wellbeing, but it’s far from the whole. Feelings of contentment, enjoyment, confidence and engagement with the world are all a part of mental wellbeing. Self-esteem and self-confidence are, too”. Prof Sarah Stewart-Brown. 5 steps to mental wellbeing. NHS Mental wellbeing describes our mental state - how we are feeling and how well we can cope with day-to-day life. Our mental wellbeing is dynamic. It can change from moment to moment, day to day, month to month or year to year. www.Mind.org.uk Resilience is a psychological tool that empowers individuals to feel capable of handling uncertainty

8. Wellbeing in education Mental wellbeing plays an important part in how staff and students experience life at university. For example, increased pressure from a variety of sources can challenge a students’ resilience and ultimately their success and future career. One of these sources is digital technology – where information overload, digital distraction, and work-life balance can affect staff and students alike.

9. Types of activity

10. Internationalising and decolonisation • Internationalising – bringing global perspectives into the curriculum, and promote opportunities for learning in a global context. • Decolonisingthe curriculum involves reflecting on our assumptions about how the world is, and the legacies of Western colonialism and empire on knowledge, education and professions, especially around race. • Different disciplines have different histories and therefore will approach this in different ways and to different extents. It is a profoundly reflective process that is never really completed.

11. Ideas for activities

12. Curriculum advisers • A ‘Students-as-Partners’ scheme • Working in partnership • http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/studentstaffcollaboration/

13. Next steps • Completing work on projects! • There are opportunities for us to present the work externally, and students are particularly welcomed to co-present at conferences • Curriculum Advisers need to complete paperwork, including sending through a brief CV, and showing passport either at the CLT or HR. Once that is sorted we can help with timesheets