Reflection is most meaningful when it is shared. These blog posts, developed as part of the Faculty’s Learning and Teaching SLOWposium, extend the discussions from our Elevate session through the voices and experiences of presenters who continue to challenge and inspire our thinking about learning and teaching.
The first session of the BJBS L&T SLOWposium: Elevate the Pitch brought together colleagues who are passionate about enhancing learning and teaching through thoughtful, evidence-informed innovation. It offered a valuable opportunity not only to share ideas, but also to reflect on the realities of educational practice and learn from one another’s experiences.
Our speakers focused on one significant change they introduced in their teaching practice. They took us on a journey through the context that inspired the change, the human-centred insights that shaped their decisions, the ways they redesigned assessment or learning activities, and the evidence they gathered to demonstrate enhanced student learning and engagement.
What made this session particularly exciting is that it moved beyond simply showcasing successful initiatives. Each presenter invited us to explore the thinking, challenges, and lessons behind educational change, offering practical insights that we may be able to adapt to our own contexts.
We are fortunate to have a group of colleagues willing to share their experiences openly and generously. Their reflections remind us that meaningful innovation often begins with asking the right questions about our students’ needs and being willing to experiment, evaluate, and refine our approaches.
The conversation continues beyond the session. Click on a presenter’s tile to explore their reflective blog post and discover the experiences, insights, and questions shaping their approach to learning and teaching.
“I position my presentation as someone whose only just started their teaching journey, but who, as a qualitative researcher, can appreciate the importance of reflective practice.”
“Supporting academic integrity in the AI era means giving students flexibility and support in their use. Equity and student assurance are strengthened when learners can choose whether to incorporate AI into their work, rather than feeling compelled to use it.”
“We stopped waiting for students to seek support and started recognising when support needed to seek the student.”
“Looking at this as a case study, and drawing on my experience as a psychology educator where reflection is central to learning, this was something I felt was worth sharing….”
“It’s an unusual balance we strike as educators. We want students to engage deeply with what they’re learning, and we also need to assess that learning. Sometimes that can make us appear like the people standing in the way of students achieving their goals….”
“Ideally, what we want our students to be in that zone of possible development. It’s where, we put people in situations, particularly where they’ve got to problem-solve, and extend their thinking skills, which often is really what many of these supervised assessments do.”
“I want to frame this not as a integrity, or just as only integrity risk, but more importantly, as a learning risk for all of us. If assessment only ever looks at the page, we might be certifying students who can produce good writing, but haven’t actually demonstrated.”
“Aristotle was misquoted, [the quote] actually was ‘Those that know do; those that understand teach’…. Please, just have fun teaching, because they will have fun and they will remember.”
Coming soon….
These reflections remind us that meaningful conversations about learning and teaching unfold over time, deepened through continued dialogue, reflection, and shared experience. Thank you for participating in the Elevate session.
