Teaching, Learning and Wellbeing

We invite you to join us – to take time out for a day – to reflect on how our teaching and learning practices do, could and should promote well-being.

The notion of well-being relates to how people feel and function on a personal and social level; it refers to emotions such as happiness, as well as to more enduring aspects of ‘flourishing’ such as a sense of autonomy and purpose, connectedness, and overall satisfaction with life.

The 2019 Learning and Teaching Conference will explore ways of creating and sustaining teaching and learning cultures that both meet the challenges associated with being an expert in the creative disciplines, and promote the individual and collective well-being of staff and students.

What are the connections between well-being and learning? How should we be responding to the challenges of teaching in the present-day arts university? Should we aspire to a ‘mindful’ university’? Does the arts curriculum have a special role to play in promoting well-being? Or should we be resisting the therapeutic assumptions behind notions of well-being?

We encourage all staff with an interest in teaching, learning and being well to attend! By popular request we have also reserved a number of places for students to join us for the day.

Ways to contribute

The structure of this year’s conference will be different from previous years to provide dedicated time for collective discussion following keynote presentations.

We requested that all individual proposals – from staff, students, or students and staff together – should follow the popular ‘lightning talk’ format. These are mini-presentations or think-pieces lasting up to five-minutes that are designed to showcase interventions and/or stimulate critique on a particular aspect of the conference theme. This style of session has had consistently positive feedback in previous years.

Exploring the theme

Suggested themes for lightning talk presentations included:

  • Supporting student transitions from home to university
  • Studying in the arts and issues of identity
  • Links or discontinuities between well-being and learning
  • Building student well-being into the curriculum
  • Preparing students for a future in the creative industries
  • Developing personal resources for student/staff well-being (e.g. self-efficacy and resilience)
  • Digital practices for well-being
  • Learning to teach
  • Self-care practices and staff workload
  • Balancing pastoral and academic responsibilities
  • Making time for reflection
  • Building and sustaining teaching and learning communities
  • Staff/student collaboration
  • Using the arts to promote well-being

How to submit a lightning talk proposal

The deadline for proposals has now passed. We are reviewing those received and will be in touch to let you know whether you have been accepted by Friday 15 February.

Important dates

  • Deadline for submission of proposals: Monday 21 January 2019 at 5pm
  • Outcome of peer review: Friday 8th February 2018
  • Delegate Registration opens: Late January/early February 2019

Peer review criteria

All proposals will be peer reviewed against the following three criteria:

  • Engagement with the conference theme
  • Clarity of content and presentation
  • Relevance to the wider UAL community