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Personalised  Pedagogies - inclusive, empowering and progressive higher education for all

The University of Hull’s Teaching Excellence Academy 2022 free ​​online conference will explore how in a time of social, economic and environmental crisis, education has a crucial role in equipping all students to meet the challenges ahead (Liyuan, 2021). These factors call for a progressive re-imagining of HE, pedagogic practice and the student experience.  

Date: Tuesday 12 July, 13:30-Wednesday 13 July, 14:00

View the programme and reserve your place now!

Conference Highlights

We are delighted to welcome Dr Sam Elkington NTF, PFHEA (Principal Lecturer, Learning and Teaching Excellence, Teesside University) for the opening​​ keynote and the Hull University Student Union​ President of Education and President of Inclusivity and Diversity for our well-established student keynote address opening the second day. We will host a ‘playful plenary’ led by Sara Hattersley​ SFHEA (Associate Professor, Academic Development Unit, University of Warwick) and a student social-media take-over. ​The conference will also feature a showcase of Student-Staff Partnership projects plus workshops, discussion papers and Pecha-Kuchas from across the sector exploring the conference themes.

Conference theme

It is a pleasure to note that our Higher Education (HE) student population is ever diversifying. Under- and postgraduate learning communities include those from backgrounds traditionally excluded from HE, increased numbers of international students, and those returning to study to reconfigure their professional lives (UUK, 2018). At the same time, stakeholder expectations of HE are shifting (Partington, 2020): students, their sponsors, professional, scholarly and research bodies, and employers are looking for programmes of study that equip graduates with the necessary competencies to navigate the fourth industrial age in a fast-changing world (Lawrence, Huxley-Binns & Scott, 2020) with integrity (Lawrence, 2021). In a time of social, economic and environmental crisis, education has a crucial role in equipping all students to meet the challenges ahead (Liyuan, 2021). These factors call for a progressive re-imagining of HE, pedagogic practice and the student experience.  

On the theme ‘Personalised Pedagogies: inclusive, empowering and progressive higher education for all’ the 2022 conference will focus on how we can create an agile and responsive curricula that offers to our diversified student body academic stretch and potential for success, builds on their varied experience and perspectives to enrich understanding of the world and widen curricula and that speaks to our stakeholders, whilst working within the systems that facilitate study and structures that safeguard the increasingly important ‘higher’ of higher education.

We will celebrate how colleagues across the sector have sustained learning community whilst attending to the educational needs and interests of individual students by deploying personalised pedagogies. Personalised pedagogies can be understood to be flexible, applied and relevant to the specific student, they are inherently inclusive (Hocking, 2010) and engaging (Jensen, 2019). They allow a student cohort, either on a module or programme of study, to share common learning goals realised through individual students’ ‘personalised journey through the curriculum’ (AdvanceHE, 2021). This personalised journey might take many forms. Subject matter, assessment method, progress through a course of study, teaching and learning approaches or specific competencies developed can all be negotiated.   

HE has proved itself dynamic over recent years, COVID-19 restrictions have inspired ingenious student-centered solutions to the benefit of students (Killingback, 2021) and stakeholders (Bartels-Hardege, 2021). Is it time to enshrine this dynamism in curricula to meet the needs and expectations of our ever-evolving learning community and empower our students to progress to their graduate future with confidence?  

Sessions will explore personalised pedagogies i. as Social Justice: inclusive HE and the benefit to those traditionally excluded from it;  ii. for Social Justice: students’ diverse perspectives widening curricula and enriching understanding of the subject; sustainable education;  iii. in Partnership: staff, students and stakeholders co-creating curricula; working on live briefs or authentic TL&A e.g. sustainable education;  iv. and the Digital Domain: the role of learning technologies in enhancing and/or realising personalised T&L.  

Conference Experience

We delivered our first online conference in 2020, with 250 delegates, who told us there were ‘some fantastic ideas and discussions’ with ‘a great community feel’; the conference was ‘enjoyable, professional, inspiring and innovative’, with ‘great speakers’ with a ‘lively and engaging chat’ facility. 100% of respondents (29) would recommend the event to colleagues. In 2021 we again run the conference online, offering fringe networking and wellbeing-focussed activities and, of course, regular screen breaks. We hope that this year we can build upon previous success and offer the same format via MS Teams, whilst making some enhancements based on delegate feedback.

Book your place now!

#TEACHull2022

References

Advance HE. A-Z, Knowledge Hub. Available online: [accessed March 2022] 

Liyuan, P. (2021)Together we will make the world a better place through education. The UNESCO Courier: Many voices one world. Available online: [accessed March 2022]  

Bartels-Hardege, H. (2021) Making the most of COVID restrictions to deliver successful outreach projects, Teaching Excellence Academy blog. Available online: [accessed March 2022]

Hockings. C. (2010) Inclusive learning and teaching in higher education: a synthesis of research. EvidenceNet. HEA: York  

Jensen, T.L. (2019) ‘Back to Bildung’: A Holistic Competence-Based Approach to student Engagement in Innovation Learning Process in HE. In Lund, B. and Arndt, S. (Eds) (2019) The Creative University: Contemporary Responses to the Changing Role of the University. Leiden: Brill Sense  

Killingback, C. (2021) Team-based learning: more of the same or is there something in it? Teaching Excellence Academy blog. Available online: [accessed March 2022]

Lawrence, J. Huxley-Binns, R. & Scott, G. (2020) Preparing graduates for the 4IR: competence-based HE, Teaching Excellence Academy blog. Available online: [accessed March 2022]

Lawrence, J. (2020) Assessing competencies could equip graduates for an uncertain post-Covid future, WonkHE blog. Available online: [accessed November 2021]

Partington, A. (2020)Personalised learning for the student consumer, Frontiers in Education. Available online: [accessed March 2022]

​UUK (2018). Patterns and Trends in UK Higher Education 2018. Available online London: Universities UK [accessed November 2021] ​

Photo credit: Valentin Antonucci from Pexels

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