First SoTL grant winners at the UG!

Developing an inclusive learning environment when working in a team

The Process Improvement and Change course at the Faculty of Economics and Business is selected as a case study for this research. This course is chosen due to its emphasis on group work and its primary focus on enhancing students' social rather than technical skills. 

The intervention will use the current course structure, with alterations being made at various levels. These modifications will primarily concern group design and composition but will also encompass learning activities (lectures, tutorials, and workshops) and course materials.

Inclusivity in the Master Population Studies: A Participatory Action Approach

Students in the Master Population Studies have signalled that traditional socio-cultural norms shape the demographic theories and methods they learn. For instance, demographic indicators are typically disaggregated by sex (“males” vs “females”), and theories on family and household dynamics usually focus on opposite-sex couples, which may leave some students feeling excluded. Such biases related to, amongst others, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality compromise inclusiveness and could negatively affect students’ learning experiences. Ideally, our concepts, definitions and data should be inclusive and representative of the population. Students’ lack of relatedness may extend further in the classroom through different learning experiences between Dutch- and non-Dutch-speaking students. With this project, we want to evaluate and enhance the inclusivity in the Master's program. The Master coordinator, 2-3 course coordinators and ± 40 students will be involved.

The Critical Creativity Toolkit: thinking-through-making as a critical practice at the MA-level

The first theoretical pathway course within the Master’s programme Media Studies: Media Creation and Innovation is “Cultures of Creativity.” I have taught this course since September 2019. The course consists of two-hour weekly seminars and combines critical theory discussions with a hands-on approach to creativity theories. Students are assessed based on a final individual essay and a Creative Demo. This Demo asks and/or answers a specific question about creativity. Students use a self-chosen, justified, creative method for their Demo presentations.

While students respond well to the class, I want to optimize my pedagogical practice further to raise students' critical skills. I want to investigate how creative practice, critical thinking, and writing can be more closely connected to achieve synergy. This also fits part of my current research agenda into pedagogical practices (Aasman et al., 2022).