ABSTRACT. This paper explores how grade-free assessment formats can promote student agency, resilience, and meaningful engagement with learning, addressing challenges associated with high-stakes, graded exams. We draw on two years of implementation of the “Active Participation” exam format at Copenhagen Business School, a pass/fail model that assesses students’ engagement with a range of learning activities distributed across the semester. Designed to reduce performativity pressures and encourage sustained participation, the format embeds multiple feedback opportunities within course design.

Guided by a compassionate assessment perspective, our analysis brings together teacher experiences documented through educational development work and student perspectives captured through narrative interviews supported by visual methods. This data illuminates how students’ motivation, confidence, and stress levels evolved, and how the grade-free format reshaped their relationship to participation and learning.

Findings indicate that the format can effectively redirect student focus from performance to learning, though successful adoption requires thoughtful teacher facilitation and clear communication of expectations. The study also highlights institutional enablers and barriers, emphasising the strategic role of educational developers in translating assessment policy into practice.

This session will engage participants in discussing both policy-level implications and practical design strategies, offering actionable insights for colleagues seeking to implement learning-oriented, low-stakes assessment approaches.

ABSTRACT. Cultivation of student feedback literacy is a challenging task for university teachers. They are facing the challenges of integrating training of student feedback literacy into the crowded curricula and finding effective methods to conduct such training. This study employed online interactive peer assessment to promote students’ feedback literacy through a quasi-experimental design. The experiment involved 114 students in three experimental class groups and 104 in three control class groups. Pre- and post-surveys on feedback literacy, as well as individual interviews, were collected to determine whether online interactive peer assessment influenced the development of student feedback literacy. The results showed that, compared with the control groups, the experimental groups increased their feedback literacy more significantly, especially in terms of appreciation of feedback and readiness to engage.

ABSTRACT. Over the past five years, the assessment landscape in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has undergone significant transformation—initially accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and more recently challenged by the emergence of generative AI. In response, HEIs across the UK have adopted Principles of Assessment for Learning to guide the redesign of assessments that are more inclusive, transparent, and aligned with educational quality assurance frameworks. In a post-1992 UK university, the Academic Development Team within the Centre for Research Informed Teaching (CRIT) developed the Assessment Principles (APs) in the spring 2024 to address the institutional need for equitable and meaningful opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and behaviours in line with the internal Curriculum Framework and institutional Education strategy. This paper explores the ways in which current assessment and feedback practices are perceived and experienced by students across different disciplines, within the context of ongoing institutional reform. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, this paper presents key findings from a university-wide survey (n=287) and focus groups (n=13) conducted during the 2024–25 academic year. Findings reveal students’ calls for fairer and more consistent feedback, clearer assessment guidelines, and student-centred assessments that reflect real-world scenarios and support the development of practical skills. Additionally, students emphasised the importance of pastoral care, more opportunities to engage with lecturers, and develop stronger peer support networks. These findings underscore the need for inclusive, context-sensitive dialogue with students and the integration of their voices into assessment design.

ABSTRACT. The current disruption created by Generative AI (GAI) and the emerging discourse around its impact on assessment in higher education presents a unique challenge for the academic community. For academic developers, GAI requires simultaneous personal upskilling and providing guidelines and spaces for academics to explore the implications (real and potential) of GAI on pedagogical practices. Similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, assessment has emerged as a significant area requiring transformation. The research question addressed in this study is: How can academic professional learning spaces be reconceptualized to support assessment transformation in a university in a GAI era? We present the findings from a qualitative study involving student and staff focus groups that was conducted at a university in South Africa, that aimed to reveal the ways in which students and staff are integrating GAI in learning, teaching and assessment. Assessment integrity emerged as a dominant concern. We explore the implications for assessment transformation possibilities, using Hanson’s (2001) conceptual framework of institutional theory and educational change. This framework helps to illustrate how institutional memory and organizational learning may influence educational transformation with respect to GAI integration. The objective of this study is to consider how academic developers may use this framework to develop a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms influencing educational change, particularly for GAI and assessment. This can be leveraged in reconceptualizing academic professional learning to foster academic agency to meet the assessment challenges related to GAI.

ABSTRACT. United Kingdom higher education strives for inclusivity and a diverse student population. In this context, supporting student belonging is an increasing focus. However, assumptions that students understand and want to belong and institutional assumption of how students should ‘belong’ are challenges. We investigate this in Imperial College London a STEMM focused, research-intensive UK university. We present data from 117 semi-structured interviews with 48 participants who were interviewed two or more times over a five-year period. We employed abductive thematic analysis to describe and explain the relationships and narrative observed. We use individual student’s experience to construct an understanding of belonging as dynamic connection influenced by factors over time. Exploring common trajectories of belonging, we organized individual perceptions of belonging on a spectrum with axes of perceived connection and relative agency. Spectra reveal four connection states that highlight the importance of agency in how students experience belonging. We argue that belonging is dynamic, shaped by evolving interactions, identities, and contexts. Student agency in actively constructing meaningful connections result in dynamic, empowered agentic connection that is transformational both for those connecting and for the contexts they connect to.

ABSTRACT. This two-year institutional project addresses the challenge of high dropout rates and poor academic performance (up to 74.63% yield below 35%) among first-year students in two demanding engineering programs at Universitat Politècnica de València (Campus de Gandia). The central aim is to integrate the development of student self-regulation (SRL)—a core component of learner agency—into institutional practice. The intervention leverages the existing tutoring program (PIAE+) to deliver targeted, data-driven SRL strategies (behavioral, metacognitive, and motivational). Concurrently, faculty teaching first and second-year courses receive training aligned with the MDAD framework, enabling them to design curriculum activities that promote SRL. The methodology employs a rigorous mixed-methods pre/post-test design using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), faculty self-evaluation guides, and qualitative portfolio analysis. This research contributes an evidence-informed model for academic development centers, seeking to empower learners and transform curricula to enhance student persistence and success.

ABSTRACT. This study presents a preliminary investigation into how university students conceptualize complex metabolic systems, with the aim of characterising expert–novice differences and developing a cognitively grounded framework for analysing causal, mechanistic, and multilevel biological processes. Focusing on second-year Veterinary Medicine students—whose reasoning is expected to reflect novice-level cognitive structures—the qualitative phase employed three elicitation tools: a metabolic reasoning task (“the crocodile case”), expert think-aloud protocols, and collaborative decoding sessions. Guided by a theory-informed approach drawing on cognitive science, preliminary findings indicate that students’ mental models are typically linear and fragmented, contrasting with the dynamic, feedback-driven reasoning of experts. To systematically assess these differences, we propose preliminary analytical tools (the CSMM and PMC frameworks) alongside three diagnostic indices (Clockwork, Mechanistic, and Multilevel Depth) derived from established cognitive constructs. Beyond its exploratory nature, this work contributes to academic development by providing scalable, cognitively grounded tools to make students’ reasoning visible, offering a framework transferable to other higher education disciplines involving complex systems.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, mathematics education research employing Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools is scrutinized to investigate how the notions of critical thinking and critical citizenship are discussed in the concerned research literature. A scoping literature review combined with content and document analysis is conducted to explore this question. The research literature lists several uses of GenAI in mathematics classrooms, such as, being mathematical problem-solving assistants, discussion partners and personalized interactive tutors for learners. Findings convey that GenAI tools can support the development of learners’ critical thinking with respect to thinking logically and can improve their problem-solving abilities by giving personalized feedback. However, if and how GenAI can encourage learners to become critical thinking citizens and participate in decisions concerning their own learning processes is a topic not much explored yet. Therefore, in this paper, I present an overview of how the concepts of critical thinking and critical citizenship are discussed in relation to the use of GenAI in mathematics education research literature. Moreover, I highlight the challenges mathematics educators may face while preparing both pre-service teachers and learners to become critical thinkers and citizens through learning mathematics in the age of GenAI.

ABSTRACT. During the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years, workshops focused on developing self-awareness and critical thinking skills were designed and implemented for biomedical science students. This initiative stemmed from needs identified in a questionnaire sent to all students and faculty members of the department, in which participants (n=223) requested formal training for the development of generic competencies. While critical thinking is fostered through methodologies such as Problem-Based Learning, self-awareness is rarely an explicit learning objective in course syllabi. Following the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach and action research methodology, the objective of this study was to analyze the impact of implementing two cycles of workshops focused on developing these skills with fourth-year students. Results showed that the perceived usefulness of the workshops was high in both courses, with an average of 3.69 ± 0.75 in 2024-25 and 4.07 ± 0.55 (5-point Likert scale) in 2025-26. Participants highlighted that the activity fostered reflection upon themselves and their professional and personal futures. These findings underscore the importance of integrating holistic training into the university curriculum, enabling students to address complex problems in their future careers. By equipping students with cognitive, socio-emotional, and ethical skills, the aim is to help them reach their full professional and personal potential.

ABSTRACT. Service-learning has become a central strategy in engaged education, integrating teaching and community engagement to foster societal change. However, traditional approaches have been criticized for lacking an explicit focus on justice, equity, and advocacy, often overlooking the systemic roots of social issues and limiting transformative potential. In response, scholars advocate for critical, justice-oriented models emphasizing social change, power redistribution and authentic community-university partnerships. Yet, operationalizing these principles remains challenging. This study explores how a critical and justice-oriented approach to service-learning can be translated to practice, focusing on the development and implementation of such an approach in a community-engaged global health module. It showcases how students engage in advocacy and develop civic and global competencies, shedding light on the transformative potential of justice-oriented service-learning. A qualitatively driven mixed-methods design was employed, combining a global citizenship framework-informed survey (quantitative) and focus group discussions and reflections (qualitative) to capture the multidimensional nature of student learning and influencing factors. Findings reveal strong student support for the program’s justice-oriented design. Through engaged projects, students explored social justice issues locally and globally, fostering the development of civic and global competencies and engagement in advocacy efforts. The findings also offer practical guidance for researchers and educators seeking to create justice-oriented educational modules. Ultimately, this study illustrates how theoretical calls for justice in service-learning can be translated into practice, enabling students to evolve as active, engaged global citizens.

ABSTRACT. Student–staff partnerships (SSPs) are increasingly positioned as a means of advancing decolonisation, pedagogies of care, and social justice in higher education. However, when uncritically implemented, SSPs risk reinforcing consumerist logics rather than disrupting neoliberal academic structures. This presentation explores how academic staff development can function as a transformative practice when students are positioned as co-creators and partners in curriculum and pedagogical design. Drawing on critical collective autoethnography, three academic development practitioners from three South African universities reflect on a three-year staff development programme co-designed and facilitated with student partners. The programme created shared learning spaces in which staff and students engaged critically with power, partnership, and co-creation in teaching and learning. Framed by social justice–oriented academic development, ubuntu, and critical hope, the study highlights both the transformative potential of co-created spaces and the persistence of entrenched institutional power dynamics shaped by apartheid legacies.

ABSTRACT. Community-engaged teaching and learning (CETL) is increasingly recognised as a powerful approach for higher education institutions aiming to foster societal relevance, significant learning experiences, student and staff agency, and collaborative curriculum optimisation. Yet, many institutions struggle with its design, implementation, and stable institutional embedding. This paper presents the EXPAND model: a flexible, multiple-entry curriculum development framework grounded in expansive learning theory and reflective professional practice. Piloted across four European universities in disciplines spanning Teacher Education to Environmental Sciences, the model demonstrated adaptability and relevance across contexts. Through its collaborative and iterative nature, EXPAND promotes distributed curriculum agency and enables thoughtful, context-sensitive design of CETL opportunities. The paper outlines the model’s theoretical foundations, describes its implementation in a multi-institutional project, and discusses relevance for academic practice.

ABSTRACT. This study examined the impact of XXX by collecting evidence on whether enrolled students at a minority-serving institution observed faculty-implemented changes in response to their needs. Undergraduate student partners gathered feedback in three introductory humanities courses and discussed student perspectives with their respective course faculty partners to inform instruction. Near the end of the term, XXX student partners administered a 6-question impact survey to collect the class reactions to the faculty’s interventions. Qualitative and quantitative findings indicated that most enrolled students observed the implemented changes and expressed satisfaction with the faculty's response to their feedback. This impact assessment article, co-authored by staff, students, and instructors, presents a strong, novel case for assessing the impact of pedagogical partnership on enrolled students and has implications for adoption at other institutions.

ABSTRACT. This presentation investigates teacher agency as enacted by Master of Education (M.Ed.) candidates within an online, equity-focused graduate programme at a private university in the Southeast United States. Drawing on critical sociocultural perspectives, we conceptualize teacher agency as relational and justice-oriented. We conducted a cross-case thematic analysis of eight candidates’ capstone posters and video presentations to identify evidence of agency. Findings indicate that candidates enacted teacher agency by integrating research, theory, and reflection to design and implement meaningful instruction in K-12 contexts. Projects centered on developing K-12 student agency and on promoting social, emotional, academic, and cultural growth, often extending their impact to families and local communities. These findings demonstrate how graduate study can foster the development of teacher agency as both practice and advocacy, cultivating educators equipped to reimagine learning and challenge inequitable structures. By positioning K-12 students as co-creators of learning experiences, candidates’ projects illustrate how equity-driven curriculum design can deepen engagement, foster inclusive and sustainable educational practices, and extend meaningful impact to families and communities. This underscores the role of equity-focused graduate programme design in advancing teacher agency and shaping justice-oriented academic practice.

ABSTRACT. With the rapid development of technologies, students will graduate into a future that is highly uncertain and ambiguous. To thrive in such a future, it is critical that to be able to maintain psychological wellbeing, through which one sustains a sense of hope, competence, and meaningfulness in life to move forward despite challenges and setbacks; it is also crucial to be able to learn and adapt continuously as the environment shifts. Individuals who have higher perceived leadership skills (i.e., ability to influence others) are more likely to feel optimistic and competent, as well as to sense progress and continuously learning in both work and life. However, whether these tendencies persist depends on whether one engages in self-reflection to obtain a realistic assessment of their true leadership capabilities. In a study of 236 master students in a university in Hong Kong, we found that one’s perceived leadership skills were indeed associated with higher sense of psychological wellbeing and engagement in lifelong learning. Engagement in self-reflection was also linked positively to lifelong learning. More importantly, engagement in self-reflection positively moderated the relationships between perceived leadership skills, and both sense of psychological wellbeing and engagement in lifelong learning. Our findings suggest that the ability to illuminate on rather than relying on an illusion of one’s leadership capabilities can be the key to whether one will thrive in the future. Leadership development programs can benefit by integrating self-reflection as an essential component.

ABSTRACT. This proposed collaborative space aims to demonstrate how reflection and innovation drive advancements in teaching, learning, and institutional practices by exploring arts-based professional development to enhance wellbeing and resilience in tertiary education. It will explore the use of art therapy to support and develop educators in response to the poor psychological outcomes and high attrition rates experienced by this group. Attendees will be invited to create their own reflective response artwork during the workshop using materials provided, offering a unique and immersive conference experience. First, literature demonstrating the individual and contextual stress factors that contribute to burnout and attrition in tertiary education, establishing the need for therapeutic support and development of educators. A brief examination of neuro principles from emerging research will establish the case for arts-based interventions to supplement existing wellbeing initiatives, before explorations of current and future directions are outlined and experienced. Attendees will participate in active reflection using their artworks to discuss specific applications in attendees’ educational settings, gather feedback around arts-based application in tertiary education and explore potential partnerships. Attendees will take away practical arts-based activities suitable to tertiary settings that may be applied to academic development and practice to enhance wellbeing and resilience amongst academic developers, teaching staff and their students as a non-traditional form of co-created learning.

ABSTRACT. HEs intensifying culture of performativity, speed, and accountability continues to shape academic identities and constrain pedagogical agency. This empirical paper examines a PGCAP at a UK university that intentionally embeds relational, compassionate, and inclusive pedagogies to counter these structural pressures. Embracing the ‘compassion turn’ (Dickson & Summerville, 2018;Waddington & Bonaparte, 2023), relational and compassionate pedagogies support inclusive, reflective, and community-centred teaching, making space for the programme to foster belonging and critical development. Drawing on relational and inclusive pedagogy (Gravett, 2022; Bovill, 2020; Rossi 2023), compassionate academic practice (Waddington & Bonaparte, 2021, 2024a), and critical analyses of neoliberal performativity (Ball, 2012; Burke, 2017), the study explores how academic developers foster safe, dialogic, communitycentred spaces supporting educators’ sense of mattering, pedagogical confidence and professional agency. Data were collected from participants’ reflective assignments, Action Learning Set, post-session reflections, feedback, and external examiner reports. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) identified three core findings:relational teaching and modelling of compassion generated embodied practices and enabled participants to feel “seen,” supported, and academically stretched; ALS created rare, trusting spaces for vulnerability, critical inquiry, and nonhierarchical collegiality; and flexible, personalised feedback practices mitigated performative pressures and enabled deeper engagement with inclusive pedagogy. The study demonstrates that compassion-forward academic development is pedagogical and political, reshaping teaching cultures, challenging deficit narratives, and strengthening institutional capacity for inclusive practice. The conclusion outlines a longitudinal evaluation strategy to track impact on academic identities, pedagogical practices, and departmental cultures across the institution.

ABSTRACT. While the expansion of online and blended learning has increased access to higher education, access alone does not guarantee inclusion. Students, particularly those navigating the "hidden curriculum" of academic norms, often interpret instructor silence as indifference. This paper posits that active facilitation—characterized by high-touch "Social Presence" and "Teaching Presence"—is the critical variable in fostering student belonging and agency – ultimately, showing sincere care for students. Findings are presented from a mixed-methods case study of two faculty learning communities designed as a “meta-experience," where instructors participated as online students. Drawing on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, the analysis demonstrates how faculty learning community facilitators intentionally modeled care through consistent reminders, proactive check-ins, and "supportive consistency." Quantitative results indicate that 97% of the instructor participants perceived the student experience as essential to their learning. Qualitative data, including longitudinal instructor interviews, reveals that experiencing this "pedagogy of care" encouraged instructors to adopt similar behaviors—such as "checking up" on students and holding "confidence-building" availability—resulting in improved student evaluations and a profound shift in more understanding and caring teaching approaches.

ABSTRACT. Universities can be recognized as life-long points of connection and growth, despite the current lack of certainty facing the sector. As a result, I argue that mindfulness practices act as tangible and accessible connection points for students to engage with their education in ways that support student success by navigating cognitive overload to ensure critical growth, exploring personal and technological integrity alongside artificial intelligence, and engaging directly with insecurities relating to global instability.

This paper details previous research regarding the potential of mindfulness practices in the classroom to promote student engagement, provide sufficient space and time consider personal contributions to class engagement and future submissions, and model practices that continue into a lifetime of grounded, contemplative, and engaged citizenship.

ABSTRACT. This study extends a previously developed conceptual framework on transformative supervision. The initial phase involved a semi-systematic review of ten peer-reviewed empirical studies, which identified supervisory approaches that foster identity development, critical reflection, and scholarly independence. From this analysis, a draft framework of transformative supervision was constructed.

In the current phase, the framework was presented to a focus group to qualitatively explore doctoral students’ supervision experiences and the supervisory strategies that facilitate transformation towards doctorateness. Data were thematically analysed using Atlas.ti, with visual outputs such as explanatory figures and network diagrams used to illustrate emerging insights. These findings were integrated with the earlier review to refine and enrich the framework.

The results highlight that effective supervision requires a dynamic blend of relational, dialogic, and structured strategies. Approaches grounded in empathetic and reflective relationships—combined with adaptability, partnership, and community engagement—proved particularly impactful. Key practices include expectation alignment, mentoring, scaffolding threshold concepts, and fostering collaborative learning through group supervision or communities of practice. Collectively, these strategies enhance self-efficacy, critical thinking, professional development, and scholarly identity formation.

The refined framework contributes to advancing transformative supervision practices that are responsive to the evolving needs of doctoral education.

ABSTRACT. A key part of academic development work involves helping academic teachers develop a scholarly approach to teaching. One way to do this is to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), which Felten and Chick (2018) have suggested is a signature pedagogy of academic development. For PhD students who are aspiring academic teachers, being exposed to SoTL while they are also developing as scholars in their own disciplines has the potential to support their epistemic growth. As novices in scholarship, teaching, and academic writing, PhD students doing SoTL could be advantaged by being less entrenched in conceptions of epistemology and what scholarship can, or should, be. At the same time, because of their limited experience, any dissonance that may exist between SoTL and their disciplinary conceptions of scholarship might present a significant challenge.

In this presentation, we will explore what matters when asking STEM PhD students, in our case in the Faculty of Engineering at our university, to write a team-based, SoTL-style project report as part of a compulsory pedagogical course. Combining content analysis and discourse analysis, we analyzed 100 reports from the past decade to answer the broad question: How do these novices in scholarship, academic writing, and teaching navigate this inherently interdisciplinary space of knowledge, inquiry, and writing? We will present some of our findings, invite discussion about them and related observations from their context, and explore some thoughts about what these findings mean for our context and academic development more broadly.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we study agency as expressed in the introductory text in the compilation thesis, the kappa (also referred to as e.g., thesis frame, synthesis or general introduction), a topic not often addressed in academic development work. Based on an analysis of a mix of sources – a course on kappa writing; focus groups discussions with doctoral students, examiners and supervisors; and a survey sent out to examiners and opponents of doctoral theses in our faculty – we argue that the kappa holds great potential for developing both the doctoral students’ independent, critical thinking and their identities as academics, but that this potential is often not brought to fruition.

Using Ashwin’s (2009) lens of agency as a dynamic process involving limiting and enabling factors at the structural and agentic level, we isolate a lack of articulated expectations as a structural limiting factor for making the most of the kappa, and propose that this limitation can be balanced by conversations about what the kappa can be. In our presentation, we call for a discussion of what academic developers can do to facilitate such conversations, which we view as agentic spaces. Such work is important, we argue, not only for maintaining independent, critical thinking as a core competence in doctoral education, but also for safe-guarding democratic values.

ABSTRACT. This paper focuses on the results of our dissertation on PhD supervision in Education and Training Sciences in France. Many research tackled the quality of PhD supervisor-supervisee relationship, challenges and factors affecting PhD student success. While other studies focus on the doctoral process as a ritual and consider it as a component of PhD student socialization, few ones focus on how PhD students, coming from different professional paths are active learners, engaged to construct their success. This study focuses on how different supervision practices foster PhD student agency and success. Fifteen interviews were carried out with supervisors specialized in Education and Training Sciences in 3 doctoral schools to answer the following questions: 1) How do supervisors conceive supervision ?; 2) What are the practices that foster PhD student agency?; 3) What are the main contextual and/or professional factors that enable PhD student agency ? A survey questionnaire was also conducted to PhD students (N=128) in 4 doctoral schools, in France, to detect what makes student embark on a PhD. Findings reveal five supervision conceptions, three PhD students’ profile and different practices to foster doctoral students agency. Supervisors and PhD students consider that doctoral schools are invited to go beyond actual practices to foster PhD students’ agency in terms of training. Last but not least, integrating PhD students in research with supervisors within their doctoral school or in partnership with other doctoral schools could be an important practice to foster PhD students’ agency.

ABSTRACT. This paper offers a collaborative autoethnographic reflection of three colleagues working in higher education who completed a fully online Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PG Dip: HE) over a two-year period at a South African University of Technology. This programme, as a form of academic induction, was designed to enhance teaching innovation, research skills, and an understanding of diverse learning environments. Drawing on decolonial and transformative learning theories we reflect on how design, delivery, and assessment practices in this programme shaped our evolving professional identities. Findings reveal tensions between the programme’s transformative aspirations and structural constraints; the guest-lecturer model used in the programme broadened experiences but undermined continuity, assessment lacked iterative feedback and scaffolding, and the online delivery provided flexibility but limited dialogic engagement. We argue that without intentional design, such programmes risk perpetuating epistemic hierarchies and performativity. We recommend embedding epistemic plurality through co-teaching, ensuring coherence in the programme administration through active coordination, and adopting authentic and scaffolded assessments. These insights inform reimagined academic induction programmes that are responsive to the global South context.

ABSTRACT. This paper analyzes the mastery of Chemical Equilibrium (CE), a recognized threshold concept (TC), among Master’s pre-service secondary teachers. While TCs are fundamental for transformative disciplinary thinking, their acquisition requires overcoming persistent Alternative Conceptions (ACs) and transitioning past the "liminal space" of partial understanding. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, Master’s students (N=9-13) completed two conceptual tests, namely the Test to Identify Students’ Alternative Conceptions. (TISAC) and the Chemical Equilibrium Basic Test (CEBT) and their performance was contrasted with expert reasoning. Quantitative results showed high overall integrated comprehension, but revealed critical, persistent ACs, especially concerning the effects of temperature variation and the treatment of heterogeneous equilibrium. Moreover, almost 50% of students struggled to recognize situations where equilibrium evolution is unpredictable. This persistent compartmentalization highlights a significant pedagogical challenge for academic development, emphasizing the need to move future teachers beyond mechanical problem-solving toward the integrated, relational reasoning demonstrated by experts.

ABSTRACT. PhD students often begin teaching with powerful but unexamined beliefs about “good” university teaching and little formal pedagogical training. This paper examines how a semester-long introductory course on teaching at a research-intensive university shapes participants’ epistemic beliefs about teaching and specific teaching techniques. The course is deliberately designed as a conceptual change intervention that surfaces prior beliefs, confronts them with evidence and new experiences, and supports more learner-focused conceptions. We analyzed 149 post-course reflections collected over eight years in response to the prompt: “Please share how your thoughts of what good science teaching looks like have changed, using the format ‘I used to think…, and/but now I think…’.” Inductive qualitative content analysis focused on prior and revised conceptions of both teaching and of specific teaching practices. Findings cluster around three shifts: from “teach as you were taught” transmission models to views of teaching as facilitating student learning; from seeing good teaching as an innate talent to a learnable, improvable practice; and from generic awareness of techniques to understanding tools in terms of their pedagogical purposes. We suggest that development work should (disruptively) surface and examine prior teaching assumptions before focusing on new practices. We also share that simple, well-structured reflection prompts can both foster and document conceptual change and teaching agency in early career academics.

ABSTRACT. Supporting novice academics has become an institutional priority amid generational transitions and growing expectations for research-informed university teaching. This paper examines how higher education institutions can design effective academic development. Drawing on findings from a qualitative case study at a large European university, the contribution synthesises perspectives from early-career academics and members of the institutional development unit to identify what makes support meaningful, transferable, and legitimate. Results highlight the importance of aligning formal training with disciplinary realities, fostering informal and collegial networks, and developing coherent, long-term pathways instead of isolated training activities. Crucially, the study shows that institutional culture and local leadership shape whether novice academics perceive development as valuable. Based on these insights, the paper proposes ten evidence‑informed principles to strengthen institutional support strategies, emphasising contextualisation, cultural change, credible guidance, and opportunities for collaborative learning. These principles offer universities a research‑informed foundation for enhancing academic development practices and responding to emerging policy requirements for novice academic training.

ABSTRACT. Our large first-year engineering courses employ several hundred student assistants who have got good grades themselves, but have little pedagogical understanding of how to support others to learn. We present a scalable train-the-trainer model that drills three evidence-informed teaching micro-routines for doctoral assistants (DAs) and student assistants (SAs): 1. Respond with questions: assistants use questing routines to support a high level of cognitive engagement from students. 2. Process-oriented feedback: assistants use a structured sequence to provide rich and contextual feedback that supports students’ ability to solve similar problems (not just this one). 3. Problem solving method: a structured problem-solving method is used to frame interactions with students to support their developing skills and reflection. DAs in the program participate in a 2 ECTS course (~7 h learning to teach problem solving; ~3.5 h on facilitation skills), then deliver two practice-rich SA workshops. The cascade (faculty developer → DAs → SAs) enables consistent, scalable, concurrent enactment across many parallel sessions supported by one faculty developer. Evaluation of student perceptions over the past few years shows that the SAs trained in this method provide the students with the “advice, guidance or feedback they need to progress” and that they “behave in a professional manner”. Implementing the teaching micro-routines training supports agency at several levels, enabling the DAs to step into their supervision of the SA, providing SA practical pedagogical tools to support learning, and creating an environment for students to develop their problem-solving skills

ABSTRACT. Higher education has undergone transformations that require new skills from teachers, including evidence-based pedagogical decision-making and the development of epistemic agency that allows them to act with professional judgment. This paper, based on a documentary review, analyzes conceptual and empirical frameworks that allow us to understand the relationship between evidence-informed educational practice (EIP), teacher epistemic agency, research skills, and knowledge mobilization (KMb). The review shows that, although these approaches have been widely developed in European contexts, there are still few studies that address their articulation in Latin America. Furthermore, even in systems where EIP has made more progress, gaps between theory and its application in teaching persist. The findings indicate that EIP is an interpretive and situated process, whose appropriation depends both on the capacities of teachers and on the organizational conditions that allow for the critical use of evidence. These elements justify moving towards training models that integrate professional reflection, the use of evidence, and research skills to strengthen university teaching practice.

ABSTRACT. This article characterizes the level of development of Research in Teaching in Higher Education (IDES) in Chilean universities, with the aim of identifying strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional approach is adopted, based on a survey conducted between October 2024 and April 2025 among managers and professionals from teaching development and educational innovation centers at 31 universities belonging to the Network of Teaching Support Centers (REDCAD), achieving 96.9% coverage. The results show significant progress in the institutionalization of IDES. Seventy-one percent of institutions have centralized units. Many have been in operation for more than five years. Approaches such as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and action research predominate. The main support actions include competitive funds, training opportunities, and academic assessment mechanisms. However, challenges remain associated with lack of time, resources, research skills, and institutional recognition. It is concluded that while favorable institutional conditions exist, it is key to strengthen the participation of academic and student actors, consolidate communities of practice, and position IDES as a strategic axis for improving learning and academic development.

ABSTRACT. This study analyzes how university teachers understand the integration between teaching and research, with an emphasis on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach, in the context of Chilean higher education. A qualitative methodology based on an interpretive phenomenological paradigm was used, through semi-structured interviews with twelve academics with experience in university teaching and participation in educational research. Content analysis and reflective thematic analysis identified two central dimensions: pedagogical practices and approaches, and teaching research and development. The findings reveal tensions between traditional models focused on knowledge transmission and innovative practices that promote critical reflection, active participation, and situated learning. Participants also recognize that researching their own teaching promotes the improvement of pedagogical practices, allows for the identification of emerging issues, and contributes to academic professional development. However, they note limited institutionalization of teaching research, low circulation of results, and little impact on curricular decision-making. The study concludes that integrating teaching and research strengthens the quality of teaching and contributes to the consolidation of more reflective academic communities. It highlights the need for institutional policies that recognize SoTL as a legitimate component of the academic career and promote conditions that allow for the systematic and sustainable linking of educational research with university training processes.

ABSTRACT. Aim: This presentation appraises the development of student agency through the prism of two articulated theoretical and methodological approaches: Design-Based Research (DBR) and Experience-Based Learning (EBL). Whilst receiving individual attention in the research literature, few studies have investigated the combined benefits, or otherwise, of these approaches. More precisely, this study has two specific objectives: (1) to investigate the expectation of IT learners prior to taking internship and compare it with their perception after taking the internship and (2) to explore the evolution of learners’ experience using both collective intelligence and AI to assess their competence acquisition. Theoretical Framework: Guided by the agentic engagement theory and Matusov et al. (2016) four conceptual frameworks of approaching student agency in educational studies, we propose the following research question: How do higher education learners manifest agency using both collective intelligence and AI-assisted learning environments? Methodology: This study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods to further our understanding of the evolution of agency. Findings: The findings suggest that the combination of DBR and EBL, enhanced by AI, complement each other to help embrace both student and teacher agency. Implications: This study highlights the importance for institutions to implement training programmes to help both teachers and staff to foster better use of AI in course design. Universities should issue AI policies to help faculty make informed decisions about how AI is introduced and used in teaching and assessment to foster student engagement and agency.

ABSTRACT. Amid growing attention for teaching quality in higher education, academic development programs can play a pivotal role in strengthening academics’ teaching. Yet the connection between educational research and everyday teaching practice remains limited. This study examines how university teachers perceive scholarly teaching and identifies the factors that hinder and enable engaging with educational research. University teachers’ perception is conceptualized in terms of a ‘researcherly disposition’ structured around three dimensions: affective (attitude), cognitive (perceived challenges), and behavioural (engagement). We surveyed 126 teachers across six faculties at a Dutch research-intensive university using 28 validated items. Analyses comprised descriptive statistics, MANOVAs/ANOVAs with Tukey HSD, and factor analysis of 14 challenge items. Attitudes were positive, but engagement typically occurred less than 2–4 times per year, with competing priorities widely reported. Factor analysis replicated three challenge types: general, knowledge-related, and resource-related, with resource constraints (e.g., lack of time; overseeing the number of publications) most prevalent. Differences appeared by faculty, University Teaching Qualification status, and teaching experience. These findings suggest coordinated and context‑sensitive measures are needed to support university teachers’ engagement with educational research, thereby helping close the research–practice gap and improve teaching quality.

ABSTRACT. Early-Career Academics (ECAs) are typically prepared for research rather than teaching, yet they are expected to provide high-quality education in research-intensive universities. Opportunities to reflect systematically on everyday pedagogical interactions and to develop a teacher identity that genuinely values teaching are often informal, context-dependent, and scarce. This qualitative feasibility study aimed to explore how audio diaries could be utilized as a tool for researching teacher identity formation among ECAs and for supporting their pedagogical reflections on interactions with students and colleagues. Six ECAs recorded weekly audio diary entries over two months and participated in a follow-up focus group interview. Using a narrative approach and cross-case thematic analysis informed by Kelchtermans’ conceptualization of teachers’ Personal Interpretive Framework, we identified three central themes: (1) organizational arrangements and research priorities set boundaries for how ECAs construct and negotiate their professional self-understanding as teachers; (2) views on student behavior and beliefs about students strongly shape task perception, job motivation, and ideas of “good” teaching; and (3) narrating pedagogical interactions through an audio diary provides a feasible and meaningful space for reflection. The audio diary functioned as a “proxy colleague” and safe space for articulating doubts, values, and possible future selves as teachers. We argue that audio diaries offer a low-threshold, scalable strategy for academic developers seeking to foster reflective agency and support teacher identity work, especially when combined with collective activities such as focus groups, peer dialogue, or mentoring.

ABSTRACT. Teaching portfolios are widely used in academic development yet too often become static compilations assembled for evaluation rather than living systems that structure reflection and teaching competence development. This conceptual paper frames academic teaching explicitly as knowledge work and argues that portfolio development should be driven by personal knowledge management (PKM) practices. We examine how digital Tools for Thought (TfTs)—markdown-based, networked note-making environments—support PKM by enabling educators to externalize, interlink, and revisit teaching-related knowledge, feedback, and design decisions. Building on relevant research in educational psychology, knowledge management, and academic development, we outline a conceptual model that integrates PKM and TfTs to transform portfolios from document repositories into dynamic architectures. The paper synthesizes theory and practice, illustrates use cases, and discusses institutional implications, including recognition structures and developer support. The contribution is relevant for academic developers, faculty, and program leaders as agents seeking sustainable, evidence-informed pathways to professionalization and teaching competence development.

ABSTRACT. Portfolio work is widely used in academic development programs to support critical reflection on teaching practice. However, process portfolios often fail to realize their potential because participants do not engage in sustained, iterative writing. As a result, reflection remains superficial and disconnected from ongoing teaching development. This paper presents the design and implementation of a process portfolio in a 7-ECTS fully online academic development program that intentionally integrates writing-didactic strategies, iterative reflection cycles, a critical incidents approach, and structured scaffolding to strengthen process-orientation. Participants engage with three complementary portfolio formats: a collection portfolio for continuously capturing teaching–learning moments; a submission portfolio for analyzing selected incidents in relation to competency development; and a teaching philosophy for synthesizing experiences into articulated principles of teaching. The design emphasizes how iterative writing and structured reflection strengthen teachers’ sense of agency in interpreting, shaping, and transforming their own teaching practices. Preliminary findings indicate that participants perceive the reflective writing prompts as highly valuable. Many report surprise at the depth of thinking facilitated by iterative writing, the emergence of concrete pedagogical actions, and the realization that such reflective processes could also benefit their own students. The paper argues that systematically embedding iterative writing and critical reflection into portfolio work enhances the quality of academic development by fostering conceptual thinking, greater professional agency, self-directed learning, and reflective teaching identities. The approach contributes to strengthening portfolio-based learning as a meaningful tool for professional growth in higher education.

ABSTRACT. Teaching portfolios are widely used in higher education to document and assess teaching practice, but their purposes and underlying assumptions vary by context. In many Canadian settings, teaching portfolios are used primarily for summative evaluation in hiring, promotion, tenure, and awards, and often take the form of descriptive accounts of accomplishments. In Sweden, by contrast, pedagogic portfolios are used for both pedagogical development and assessment and are grounded in reflective practice, pedagogical reasoning, and a focus on student learning. This paper reports on a multi-year transatlantic collaboration in which a Swedish pedagogic portfolio model was adopted and adapted within a Canadian university context. Using thematic analysis of interviews with participants, assessors, academic leaders, and Swedish collaborators, the study identifies key differences between policy-mandated teaching portfolio practice and pedagogic portfolio practice. The findings suggest that pedagogic portfolios reorient portfolio work from performance documentation toward inquiry into learning and teaching, and that a hybrid model may strengthen both academic development and institutional approaches to the assessment of teaching.

ABSTRACT. Reflective activities are becoming more visible in engineering education, and may be especially important in the AI era, where students need stronger judgment, critical awareness, and sense-making. This study explores the quality of metacognition made visible in the repeated reflective writing of eight early-career STEM academics during a teacher training course on how to teach human-centred innovation. The study used an interpretive, theory-informed qualitative analysis grounded in Flavell’s theory of metacognition and drawing on document analysis. AI-assisted identification of metacognitive dimensions was combined with iterative human refinement of examples and quality judgments. Three dimensions of quality were identified: analytic sophistication, judgmental soundness, and dispositional traces. The findings show clear variation in the quality of visible metacognition across the reflections. Stronger texts moved beyond description by making difficulty, uncertainty, and change in understanding visible, and by using these experiences to derive proportionate pedagogical implications. Weaker texts remained largely procedural or descriptive. The study points to the value of addressing metacognition more explicitly in teacher training

ABSTRACT. Evaluating the effectiveness and impact of Faculty-Academic Development (FAD) programmes remains a critical challenge in Higher Education, given the complexity of academic contexts and the limited availability context-sensitive evaluation models. This paper presents an ongoing evaluative doctoral research project focused on a longitudinal FAD programme designed for junior faculties (n= 18) from different disciplinary fields at the University of Genoa, delivered by its Teaching and Learning Centre. The study pursues a twofold aim: to investigate how the programme supports the development of teaching competencies and the transformation of teaching conceptions and practices, and to pilot a participatory and transformative evaluation approach that fosters continuous improvement, innovation, and sustainability. Drawing on a Developmental Evaluation (DE) logic integrated with the impact framework proposed by Stes et al. (2010), the study adopts a participatory mixed-methods case-study design articulated across beforehand, ongoing, follow-up, and afterward phases. Data collection includes surveys, reflective practices, questionnaires, focus groups, and the inclusion of students' perspective. Although the study is ongoing, it argues that integrating DE with established impact models enables a shift from linear, summative evaluation towards a systemic, process-oriented understanding of change. The paper highlights implications for Faculty-Academic Development practices, particularly regarding participatory evaluation, professional reflexivity, and the formative use of evaluation data to enhance FAD programmes design and impact.

ABSTRACT. Recent workplace trends in Australian Higher Education have seen shifts that are impacting the nature and status of academic work. Most recently there has been the emergence of disciplinary ‘education-focused’ positions, which can attract up to 80% time allocation to teaching and associated activities. The argument supporting the implementation of ‘education-focused’ positions lies in universities intending to champion the value of “education” to the same degree as “research”. In addition to carrying elevated face-to-face contact, those in education-focused roles are expected to be leaders of scholarly initiatives and research in the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching. Considering these positions are mostly offered at junior levels, we wonder at the level of agency of those in these positions. Juxtaposed with our assessment of the recent “education-focused” position implementation, and catalysed by the call to understand the long-term impacts of academic development programs (Chalmers & Gardiner, 2015; Wright et al., 2025), we undertook a reflective dialogic approach to the surface ways formal tertiary education qualifications, including those offered by central academic development units, have proved valuable to our individual career trajectories and to enhancing student learning within our respective disciplines.

ABSTRACT. Evaluating the impact of Academic Development actions is now a crucial but methodologically fragmented area within Teaching and Learning Centres (TLCs). We present the results and interpretations of a systematic review of the literature aimed at mapping models, methodologies and tools used in Academic Development, highlighting their critical issues and potential. Our review is based on a solid theoretical framework that integrates classical approaches to evaluation with contemporary perspectives on continuous improvement and organisational learning. The methodology we adopted follows the PRISMA criteria and explores studies published between 2020 and 2025 in international databases (EBSCO, ERIC, Scopus, Google Scholar) and in specialist journals in the field. Our findings highlight a growing shift from accountability approaches to a systemic and reflective view of evaluation, where evaluation in itself becomes a process of reflection for continuous improvement. Current evaluation practices remain largely focused on outputs and perceptions, with limited attention to policy and governance, organisational structure and capacities of TLCs, programme design, training course and activities and institutional culture. This contribution offers a multi-level model that links policy, structures, planning and training activities, and outlines operational implications and future research directions for developing integrated, adaptive and longitudinal evaluation models.

ABSTRACT. Academic development has shifted from centralised, discipline-neutral approaches towards more discipline-sensitive models, yet the mechanisms through which faculty developers facilitate this transition remain underexplored. Drawing on focus group data from faculty developers and employing the Integrative Transfer of Learning (ITL) model, this study examines how faculty developers navigate the tension between generic pedagogical principles and discipline-specific teaching practices while supporting diverse academic staff. Faculty developers emerge as designers of learning environments (agency architects) who strategically bridge generic and specific approaches. The analysis identifies four key dimensions shaping transfer: task, personal, context and pedagogical. Findings suggest that effective faculty development requires moving beyond toward contextualised approaches that acknowledge disciplinary epistemologies while maintaining pedagogical coherence. This research contributes to understanding faculty development as a sophisticated practice of balancing standardisation with customization, offering implications for program design and professional development strategies in higher education.

ABSTRACT. Our session will share emerging themes from our qualitative study on the impact of the Facilitator Development Workshop (FDW) on instructor development through the lens of the signature pedagogical approaches embedded in the FDW; namely the high impact nature of: (a) peer-based development, (b) learner-focused instruction, (c) experiential learning, and (d) reflective practice (Vesely, 2022). The FDW curriculum encourages participants to experiment with ideas, to connect with one another, and to expand conceptions of teaching and learning. Many FDW participants find facilitating to be the most challenging and rewarding work they have done in a teaching-related workshop context. Our research study aims to begin uncovering what changes in teaching practices are associated with participation in the FDW, how the experience of the FDW shapes participants' conceptions of teaching and learning, and in what ways, if any, the FDW experience might have permeated into other contexts. In our session, we will share the perceived impact of various aspects of the workshop and our thematic analysis of the shared accounts. We will also consider the broader applicability of reflection on professional practice to the global community in times of change.

ABSTRACT. This scoping review explores the evolving concept of educational leadership in higher education and its implications for educational development. While traditionally linked to individual teaching enhancement, recent literature highlights the need for a more systemic and collaborative approach. The review addresses two research questions: What are the conceptualisations of leadership in higher education? and What are the implications for practice? A structured search across ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus identified 39 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2006 and 2025. Preliminary findings reveal a conceptual continuum of leadership models, ranging from individual and administrative to collective and transformative. The analysis highlights significant overlaps and ambiguities among leadership types, particularly between academic and educational leadership. These results underscore the need for clearer definitions and a deeper understanding of how leadership practices shape inclusive, innovative learning environments.

ABSTRACT. Educational development projects in higher education often struggle to document lasting impact, and the underlying processes of change remain poorly understood. This study investigates how change leaders navigate the dynamic interplay between agency and the structures that enable or constrain that action. Sixteen leaders from diverse projects shared narratives of critical decision-making moments, followed by in-depth interviews. Analysis revealed that successful change leaders use two main strategies: maintaining progress by adapting plans and sustaining stakeholder and team engagement. Leaders showed awareness of their agency in a given situation, adjusting actions across contexts and leveraging networks to overcome resistance. They actively identified enabling and constraining structures, such as institutional practices and disciplinary cultures, and sought to influence these structures to enable and build agency. Our findings highlight that educational change is not a linear process but a navigation of structural-agentic processes, where leaders continuously adapt to maintain progress. Building capacity to recognize and shape this interplay is important to support future change leaders.

ABSTRACT. This paper critically examines a professional learning intervention designed for academic staff development practitioners at a South African public higher education institution, with a focus on its contribution to shifting individual and collective agency, as well as the transformation of professional identity and practice. In a higher education context characterised by supercomplexity and intensified transformation imperatives, recent developments, such as the updated QAF (CHE, 2021) and emerging Higher Education Practice Standards, require academic developers to move beyond service-oriented roles towards more strategic, adaptive, and innovative practice. Drawing on Archer’s morphogenetic approach to agency, the study addresses the question: How does an educational consultancy professional learning programme contribute to the morphogenesis of agency and identity? The intervention, funded through a three-year grant, comprised four annual professional learning sessions focused on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, curriculum development, assessment, and teaching and learning. The sessions were deliberately co-designed by participants. Using a qualitative case study approach, the paper analyses programme documentation, reflective narratives, and artefacts of practice to appreciate change at the individual, collective, and programme levels. Findings suggest morphogenesis in professional identity and enhanced agency, evidenced through changes in practice, emergent SoTL projects, and expanded professional networks, evaluated against Guskey’s (2012) model. The paper argues that intentionally designed professional learning can support the repositioning of academic developers as strategic agents of educational innovation. This supports the idea of the importance of Academic Staff Developers co-creating their professional learning opportunities that explicitly attend to identity, agency, and institutional transformation.

ABSTRACT. In response to sector-wide pressures, our Academic Development team has led two major strategic projects impacting and influencing the university, namely a whole-institution curriculum redesign (reworking over 100 courses) and a rebuild of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to enable improved learning design at scale. This work has required negotiation of our identities, and development of nuanced approaches to leadership. The current neoliberal climate impacting Higher Education globally creates and extends potential tensions between business efficiencies and learning. Against this backdrop, academic developers are deployed to lead change projects to ensure strategic imperatives are supportive of institutional needs and ambitions. This paper explores academic developers’ leadership roles in institutional transformation, drawing on established leadership frameworks and academic development literature, and proposes a conceptual framework for leading change at scale. Grounded in leadership theories and case-based reflection, we introduce a typology of leadership modalities experienced by academic developers: done by (through facilitation), done to (navigating tension around change), done through (operational project management and stakeholder liaison), and done with (collaborative grassroots leadership across silos). We offer attendees practical strategies and evidence-based insights for leading large-scale strategic transformation, balancing institutional imperatives with pedagogical values, while negotiating personal and professional identities as academic developers.

ABSTRACT. This proposal presents a holistic model of Faculty Development (FD) designed to address the increasing complexity and evolving demands of contemporary higher education. Moving beyond sectoral or fragmented approaches, the proposed framework envisions academic development as a multifocal and integrated process that connects the personal, professional, and institutional dimensions of university life. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, the model articulates FD across three interrelated organizational levels—micro (individual faculty), meso (collegial and departmental structures), and macro (institutional governance). Represented through the metaphor of a three-dimensional cone, the model emphasizes the dynamic and recursive nature of development processes, with heuristic evaluation positioned at its core as a transformative mechanism for continuous improvement. The proposal illustrates the operational translation of this framework through an organizational architecture capable of integrating multiple FD initiatives and incorporating systematic evaluation practices. Implementation of the model requires significant political, organizational, and operational investment, achievable only when Faculty Development Centers (FDCs) act in alignment with university governance and under a clear institutional mandate. Nevertheless, the model remains adaptable to resource-limited contexts, where faculty developers can assume multiple roles to ensure program sustainability, able to foster a systemic vision of academic growth that harmonizes individual and institutional development, strengthens academic culture, and enhances the university’s capacity for innovation and change.

ABSTRACT. This poster presents findings from a scoping review, aimed at exploring research-based initiatives designed to foster a sense of belonging among undergraduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students. Increased belonging prevents student drop-out and increase retention rates, answering to the broader challenge of insufficient numbers of graduates qualified to work for STEM-related careers. Providing students with opportunities supporting the development of sense of belonging could be critical for institutions and educational agents to foster change and impact the learning environment. The review included 55 studies and identified five categories of effective initiatives: 1) undergraduate research experiences, 2) mentoring, 3) in-class pedagogical activities, 3) social initiatives, and 5) formal institutional programs. These initiatives can be implemented across various organizational contexts, both at institutional and course level, demonstrating that diverse educational agents can influence the learning environment and take actions in strengthening students’ sense of belonging.

ABSTRACT. In this study we give insight into university teaching for student engagement. With our results, we aim to support university teachers in their didactical development to effectively engage students. We interviewed 13 university teachers to understand what perspectives they have on student engagement (definition, teaching practices and influencing factors). With four case-studies, we further explored the interplay of teachers’ perspectives (teacher interview), their teaching behaviour (classroom observation) and students’ perceptions (student survey). Our interview data demonstrate that teachers have different perspectives on what student engagement is, though mostly focus on behavioural engagement. They adopt diverse teaching practices, such as interacting with students. Factors like teaching large student groups are of influence on their teaching. With our case-studies, we demonstrate (mis)alignments between the teachers’ perspectives, teaching behaviour and students’ perceptions. We discuss the amount of responsibility students can take for their engagement, the teacher and student interest for the subject matter, and the use of interactive activities in classes. Our results imply that, for effective student engagement, we need to support teachers in understanding what the concept exactly means. The (continuous) need for development seems most urgent for teaching in lectures or large classes. Our case studies furthermore highlight the importance of taking the teachers’ specific context into account, for instance when the course content lacks the teachers’ or students’ interest.

ABSTRACT. Student participation has become a central element of European higher education policy, particularly following the emphasis placed by the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG, 2015) on the inclusion of students as key actors in decision-making and quality processes. However, in many universities, the transition from formal recognition to effective participation remains partial. Within this context, the University of Florence launched Rappresentiamoci, a participatory action research project designed to strengthen student representation and build a shared culture of informed, democratic engagement. At the University of Florence, approximately three hundred student representatives are elected across all levels of governance, including Study Programmes, Schools, Departments, central bodies such as the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors, and quality assurance structures. Their institutional role is both deliberative and relational: mediate between students, staff, and governance, contribute to quality processes, and support student voices and needs. The project brought students, faculties and administrative staff together as co-researchers, gathering lived experiences, needs and expectations and transforming them into a structured training programme. Findings highlight the need for institutional literacy, communicative competence and shared spaces for deliberation. At the same time, they confirm the educational potential of representation as a site of civic learning, democratic practice and community building, echoing international scholarship on Student Voice and Students Faculty Partnership (Cook-Sather, 2006; Bovill et al., 2011; Fielding, 2004).

ABSTRACT. This poster will explore creative alternatives to the term or research paper into an Introduction to Literature course for health science majors. Our aim is to embed meaningful research into a general education, writing-intensive setting by designing projects that provide student agency, emphasize synthesis and analysis, and mirror the collaborative practices of healthcare professions. To achieve this, we have implemented a series of multimodal research assignments requiring student engagement with primary and secondary sources, group writing, and multimodal end products, including the creation of digital “critical editions” of online literary texts, collaborative wiki entries that synthesize historical and cultural contexts of literary works, and research-informed creative projects. Collectively, these assignments foster authentic inquiry, contextual understanding, and the collaborative skills essential to students’ future careers in health science.

ABSTRACT. Health sciences education must provide students with an excellent scientific and humanistic education, while also equipping them with skills that enable professional development in a changing environment. A transversal project was designed to enhance critical thinking and socio-emotional competencies across the Medicine and Human Biology Degrees. While the overarching project encompasses various stages of the curriculum, this study focuses specifically on a pilot implementation involving 65 fourth-year students. The intervention combined cinemeducation and case-based learning in a seminar dedicated to primary immunodeficiencies. Students were challenged to analyze and apply knowledge to concrete situations of their future professional practice using excerpts from an episode of the medical drama House MD, an audiovisual testimony from a patient, and two clinical cases. A satisfaction survey (n=26) was administered to evaluate the aspects that were most well-received by the students and those that needed improvement. All items received positive ratings, with an average score between 4.42 and 4.92 out of 5 points. Students highlighted the dynamic and engaging nature of the activity and the value of the series in integrating theoretical aspects with real-world professional practice situations. These results demonstrate that combining these methodologies is an innovative and engaging way to introduce students to the complexities of clinical practice. Future implementations will be refined through faculty focus groups. This project puts forward a way of integrating socio-emotional competence and critical thinking into the curriculum, allowing students to learn about professionalism, preparing them for real-world challenges.

ABSTRACT. Academic advising has increasingly been recognised as a key strategy for enhancing student success within South African higher education. However, it is often positioned as a discrete institutional function, separate from the pedagogical work of lecturers. This chapter challenges such distinctions by exploring the interplay between academic advising and academic development as a relational and rhythmic pedagogical practice. Drawing on a qualitative, reflective inquiry approach, the chapter is anchored in a critical incident arising from a professional academic development session. Data generated through a Padlet activity, where academics reflected on how they and their students learn, revealed an unanticipated shift from pedagogical concerns toward issues of student support, engagement, and care. These responses are analysed using a reflexive thematic approach and interpreted through Agamben’s notion of rhythmic action and Pedagogies of Mattering. The findings suggest that lecturers routinely engage in what is conceptualised as micro-advising moments—informal, often unrecognised practices of guidance, feedback, and relational engagement embedded within everyday teaching. From this perspective, academic advising is not an additional responsibility, but an integral dimension of pedagogical practice that unfolds through ongoing movements between teaching, reflection, and responsiveness. The chapter contributes to theoretical debates on academic advising by reframing it as a relational and pedagogical practice enacted by lecturers, rather than solely by designated advisors. In doing so, it offers a new way of understanding how advising emerges within academic development contexts, with implications for more integrated, contextually responsive approaches to student success in South African higher education.

ABSTRACT. This study is set at Imperial College London, a ‘STEMM+B’ (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and business) focused UK university where students are typically strategic and discipline-oriented, undervaluing broader experiences. Although graduate employability is good, students’ can struggle to articulate their ‘soft skills’. An Award was established to address this gap and promote holistic integration of STEMM+B and non-STEMM+B experiences and support construction of agentic integrated developmental narratives.

A questionnaire was used to capture participants’ initial motivations, expectations and perceived barriers to engagement. Following this, semi-structured interviews with seven students who had partially submitted and eight students who completed the full Award. Each transcribed and thematically analysed.

Questionnaire and early interview data show initial expected benefits of engagement were strategic with the Award predominantly perceived as a route to formal recognition. However, as participants progressed, they began to appreciate the transformative nature of structured reflection evolving from performance-driven engagement to more agentic reflection.

Several principles emerged as critical to supporting student agency and meaningful engagement in development. Maintaining the perception of low barriers and high benefits maximises engagement. Resisting the impulse to eliminate barriers, recognising that appropriate challenge fosters resilience, adaptability, and long-term growth. Data show that what participants initially report as frustration with process and perceive as a means to a goal is often retrospectively considered as transformative and more valuable than those initial strategic goals.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the educational significance of graduation research in Japan from the perspective of graduates, thereby addressing a deficiency in current quality assurance research that has predominantly concentrated on faculty viewpoints. Although nearly all Japanese universities require graduation research as a culminating learning experience, limited evidence exists on how graduates interpret its processes, outcomes, and challenges. A focus group interview with three graduates from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences—each recommended for notable growth—was conducted to highlight these experiences. The findings highlight three key points relevant to educational development. First, the significance of the research topic and the chance to share findings outside of the university influenced motivation. Second, the process was characterized by autonomy-based supervision and peer dialogue, though the high level of autonomy created difficulties in defining research approaches and managing teamwork without explicit guidance. Third, these challenges fostered substantial development of transferable skills such as critical thinking, communication, and collaboration—competencies central to contemporary notions of learning outcomes and graduate quality. Graduates viewed graduation research as crucial preparation for post-university life, yet identified ongoing challenges in communicating its significance and calibrating supervisory involvement. The study suggests the need for more intentional supervisory frameworks to enhance the educational effectiveness of graduation research within quality assurance systems.

ABSTRACT. This paper focuses on enhancing agency and enabling empowerment of first-year education students at a rural university in South Africa. It focuses on a new approach to develop undergraduate students’ academic vocabulary and phrasing. Building on research that primary school learners have reading and comprehension challenges, this paper highlights the necessity of acquiring a formal academic vocabulary at university while acknowledging past influences on language development – specifically a formal English. This paper focuses on preparing students for the transition from school to university language by using Tomasello’s (2003) Usage-based theory of language acquisition indicating that the present language abilities, relating to academic vocabulary specifically, can be improved. The study adopted a qualitative approach, in particular using Educational Action Research (EAR) as methodology, and drew on Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) Bio-ecological model of human development, which theory places emphasis on the importance of a person’s environment in relation to language development. Concepts “intention-reading” and “pattern-finding” skills from Tomasello’s theory were applied in an intervention developing language learning. The research findings revealed that little expository writing (factual writing) is done at school level to prepare students for tertiary education and that formal academic vocabulary is not addressed sufficiently to enable students to be prepared for university language. Another finding was that students are not reading sufficiently to prepare them for formal university texts. It is recommended that students focus on consistent learning experiences relating to academic vocabulary and phrasing at university to prepare them for the transition to university language.

ABSTRACT. This doctoral research project explores inclusion in Higher Education (HE). The main focus is on faculty members’ perspectives on how to assess individual accommodations for students with disabilities, without lowering the academic requirements. The overarching research question of the study is thus: How do faculty members in higher education perceive and assess the relationship between academic requirements and quality, while striving for a more inclusive education environment? Norwegian legislation grants students with disabilities the legal right to individualized accommodations, as long as these do not impose disproportionate resource demands on the institution or compromise academic requirements of the course. Determining whether academic requirements are affected by the accommodations is largely a discretionary judgment made by individual faculty members. Although this promotes professional agency, it also results in incoherent practices and complex dilemmas. To meet the evolving needs of an increasingly diverse student body, robust collaboration between institutional leadership, administrative staff, and faculty is essential. This study applies a qualitative research design, including 13 semi-structured interviews with faculty from eight Norwegian universities and university colleges, in addition to document analysis. Preliminary findings indicate that ensuring students’ individual accommodations is primarily considered an administrative responsibility, while limited attention has been given to developing coherent institutional frameworks for practical implementation. Strengthening inclusive pedagogical practices is crucial for providing faculty with strategies that support both legal compliance and academic integrity, making this research highly relevant for institutional policy and academic practice.

ABSTRACT. The Mexican Ministry of Public Education (SEP) reports that in Mexico, one in eight students who begin a university degree do not complete it. Globally, approximately 12% of students have dropped out of university (UNESCO, 2019). In Latin America, this figure rises to 33%, with the majority of these cases involving women (El Espectador, 2021). Although the phenomenon of university dropout has been widely studied, research has focused mainly on economic, personal and institutional factors, leaving in the background the role that academic expectations play in student retention, especially in a hybrid academic environment.

In this context, the present research emerges, focused on exploring the impact of academic expectations on university dropout rates in hybrid learning programs. The study employs a descriptive-explanatory approach. The main proposal lies in the design, development, and validation of a mixed-methods instrument (Delphi method, surveys, interviews) to generate new variables and categories of analysis. This methodological design is key to a comprehensive diagnosis that provides strategic elements for designing retention policies, aligning with subtopic two on institutional agency and strategy.

ABSTRACT. Agency is a key concept for meaningful higher education, enabling students to flourish and teachers to adapt to the evolving dynamics of higher education. Developing agency is also essential to prepare students for diverse and rapidly changing professional environments. Yet, student, teacher, and epistemic agency, are often discussed separately or even confused when applied in educational contexts. This symposium brings these perspectives together to clarify their meanings, explore their interrelations, and propose a comprehensive understanding of agency in higher education.

The first presentation examines student agency as the capacity to intentionally self-regulate learning and influence the learning environment. It introduces a model linking students’ agency resources (personal, relational, and experiential) to agentic behaviour such as help-seeking and choosing learning strategies. The second contribution explores teacher agency through a qualitative study of university lecturers, identifying five purposes that guide agentic action: navigating institutional structures, acting on ethical commitments, negotiating tensions, fostering growth, and building relationships. The third paper investigates manifestations of epistemic agency among teachers in higher professional education, conceptualized as the capacity to actively use and create actionable knowledge in daily practice.

Together, these studies reveal that agency is inherently relational, contextual, and purpose-driven, shaped by individual capacities, social interactions, and institutional affordances. The concluding discussion integrates these perspectives into an innovative, coherent framework and invites participants to relate it to their own teaching and professional development practices, offering insights for fostering agency-rich learning environments across higher education.

ABSTRACT. Around the world, educational developers are navigating a higher education landscape profoundly shaped by the current ascendance of neoliberalism and its market-driven logics of managerialism, efficiency, and accountability. These pressures re-shape educational development roles, the work of teaching centres, and institutional teaching cultures, challenging developers to balance personal and institutional demands while upholding a culture of teaching excellence and protecting the professional integrity of educational development.

While it is the case that challenges abound, educational developers also occupy a uniquely strategic position to challenge, re-frame, and humanize teaching cultures and capabilities. This symposium brings together international perspectives to interrogate the provocations and possibilities for our profession at this moment.

Papers in this symposium explore how educational developers can better equip themselves for meeting the moment by deepening theoretical and practical knowledge and further developing future-oriented mindsets, as well as professional identity through engagement in formal and informal educational experiences. Contributors also examine conflictions and possibilities in various conceptualizations of educational development as a field, discipline, and profession.

ABSTRACT. To our knowledge there is not yet a commonly internationally recognized program for developing ourselves as educational developers. However, in the recent past, examples of such programs emerged in various national contexts. In this symposium we will address this topic from four different angles. The presenters in this symposium come from different cultural backgrounds and work in different higher education systems. However, they are all confronted with the question of how to develop the developers. They will demonstrate their challenges within their context and share their solutions, future plans and issues that they still face. We will discuss with the audience what lessons we can learn from these different perspectives and approaches and what are general recommendations for programs to support the professional development of educational developers and how this might influence their agency. We are especially interested in the question if cultural and contextual differences have an effect on this development and if there is a possibility of organizing an internationally shared program for educational developers.

ABSTRACT. The outbreak of the Corona Virus Disease in the late 2019 (COVID 19) and the subsequent declaration of the virus as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020, affected all the sectors of human life. This is especially so because of the implementation of a combination of measures touted as international best practice: lockdowns, quarantines, curfews, and social distancing (de Figueiredo et al. 2020; UNDP, 2020) “combined with public health advice to frequently wash hands with soap or alcohol-based sanitizers, to wear face masks, and to avoid touching one’s face” (Nderitu et al, 2000). Like all other sectors, the Higher Education (HE) Sector was heavily disrupted. Traditional face to face teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) was no longer feasible. The aim is to examine the contribution of emergency response capabilities on organization sustainability among universities in Kenya. A mixed methods design was employed. Findings indicate that universities exhibit moderate preparedness, with systemic vulnerabilities in funding models, human capacity, and digital and physical infrastructure. The study provides evidence on preparedness gaps within the higher education sector in a developing country context. Conceptually, it advances the integration of pandemic preparedness into academic development discourse by linking emergency response capabilities to teaching continuity, institutional learning, and resilience-building. In conclusion, strengthening emergency response capabilities is central to enhancing organization sustainability among universitie. Keywords: Pandemic preparedness, emergency response capabilities, university sustainability.

ABSTRACT. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are fundamentally assessed by their outcomes - specifically, graduate employability, lifelong learning, and community engagement. Despite major post-Soviet reforms aimed at system transformation, Georgia continues to face ongoing challenges with graduate employment. This study emerged from a broader research project titled "Over-education and Labor Market Mismatch in Georgia: Challenges and Ways to Reduce Them." It uses a qualitative approach to assess how well university curricula match labor market needs. The methodology involved conducting and analyzing 40 focus groups across five selected universities (two in the capital, three regional). Focus group participants included faculty administration representatives and lecturers, final-year students from business and education faculties, and graduates from those same faculties. The analysis revealed no notable differences in responses by faculty type. Key Findings: 1. Literature: Heavy reliance on English-language literature, often supplemented by "readers" compiled by lecturers with materials translated into Georgian. 2. Curriculum structure: Students, especially during the first two years, noted substantial overlap between subjects. Some courses were perceived as excessive or unnecessary. 3. Practical components: Importantly, there's consensus among students, administration, and lecturers that mandatory internships at potential employment sites are either ineffective or don't exist at all. 4. Employer engagement: Very minimal, largely attributed to employer indifference. Based on these findings, recommendations were developed to improve curriculum quality and ensure graduate competitiveness in the labor market.

ABSTRACT. Institutions in higher education are increasingly asked to demonstrate agency in navigating environments where crises are becoming regular, not exceptional. Although considerable research focuses on teaching innovation and policy change, little is known about how leaders, faculty, and staff wield agency in the midst of disruption. This study builds on 50 completed semi-structured interviews across nine universities and private training centers in Uzbekistan, with the broader study targeting 140–160 participants. The analysis investigates how actors within higher education engaged with crises ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to leadership turnover, financial and infrastructural breakdowns. Using thematic analysis, three agency patterns were identified: (1) Acting before disruption - anticipatory strategies such as informal preparedness routines, early warning mechanisms, and faculty-led initiatives to protect continuity; (2) Deciding under uncertainty - leadership choices: transparent communication, ethical judgment, and decisive adaptation when information was incomplete/conflicting; (3) Adapting and transforming - emergent practices (collaborative curriculum redesign, resource improvisation, and codified peer support) converted disruption into long-term institutional learning. Rather than treating crisis management separately, the study illustrates how agency in higher education is enacted through ordinary academic work: small, local decisions that maintain teaching, protect students, and sustain staff morale. By emphasizing improvisation, ethical judgment, and collective problem-solving, the research situates agency not as resilience after the fact, but as the ability to act, decide, and during disruption. The Uzbek case contributes to global debate about educational development by showing how institutions in low-resource contexts transform disruption into opportunities for renewal.

ABSTRACT. Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) function as pivotal change agents in higher education, yet their transformative capabilities often remain underutilized. This paper examines how CTLs exercise agency as drivers of institutional transformation, introducing the empirically-validated CTL Change Implementation Framework (CCLIF). Based on qualitative data from 45 participants across diverse Israeli higher education institutions, the study reveals how CTLs orchestrate change through sophisticated 'middle-out' processes that bridge institutional leadership and faculty. Analysis demonstrates how these centers successfully navigate resistance, build multi-level stakeholder engagement, and create sustainable faculty learning communities despite lacking formal authority. The findings highlight variations across institutional types, with research universities emphasizing evidence-based approaches while teaching-focused institutions prioritize direct pedagogical impact. This research is particularly relevant to academic developers seeking to enhance their strategic positioning and institutional influence. The introduced framework provides practical guidance for CTL directors and academic developers to analyze their institutional contexts, develop sophisticated resistance management strategies, and design sustainable implementation approaches. By reconceptualizing CTLs as strategic change architects rather than merely service providers, this study empowers academic developers to more effectively exercise agency in transforming teaching and learning practices across higher education institutions. The findings directly address the conference theme by demonstrating how academic development units can function as powerful agents of change through sophisticated network-building, strategic positioning, and contextually-adaptive implementation approaches.

ABSTRACT. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are increasingly recognised as mechanisms for fostering equitable, collaborative, and sustainable professional learning in higher education. Grounded in Etienne Wenger’s Communities of Practice and Jack Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, this study conceptualises PLCs as dynamic, relational spaces where academics engage in shared inquiry, critical reflection, and the co-construction of pedagogical knowledge. This paper draws on a qualitative, interpretive reflective inquiry conducted by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) Professional Learning Project (PLP) team. Data were generated through a series of PLC-focused workshops at HELTASA (Un)Conference gatherings over multiple years, supported by cumulative team reflections on workshop artefacts. Using reflexive thematic analysis, the study identifies key enablers, constraints, and sustainability conditions shaping PLCs across diverse South African higher education contexts. Findings highlight that PLCs function as inclusive and collaborative learning spaces that support collegial engagement, professional identity development, and pedagogical innovation. However, their sustainability is constrained by systemic challenges, including limited institutional recognition, workload pressures, and insufficient structural support. Despite these barriers, PLCs hold significant potential to advance reflective practice and collective professional growth. The study contributes a conceptual framework that integrates relational, institutional, and reflective dimensions of PLCs, offering guiding principles for their design and sustainability. It argues that universities must move beyond ad hoc professional development initiatives towards systemic, institutionally embedded learning ecosystems. In doing so, PLCs can play a transformative role in advancing equity, resilience, and sustainable academic development in South African higher education.

ABSTRACT. Feelings of hopelessness, anger and anxiety around climate change are prevalent in young people, and, in this paper, we argue that academic development has a role in supporting Higher Education students and staff to navigate these negative feelings. We demonstrate how a longitudinal, student-staff co-created project empowered undergraduate students to address these affective dimensions through action-taking in a supportive, participatory space. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected at regular intervals to measure emotions and understanding of climate issues, as well as capturing reflections on taking action and contributing to a student-staff partnership project. 27 students initially volunteered on the four-year project, which was run alongside their formal studies through informal online and in-person meetings. Examples of action-taking included encouraging peers to understand the importance of voting, and presenting at the British Ecological Society. In the fourth year, six students joined the two staff members to become co-researchers. Adopting a collaborative autoethnographic approach, we interviewed each other and engaged in a collective, reflective thematic analysis to conceptualise our experiences and learning during the project. Emergent themes included: reconceptualising activism as small acts of agency; embracing vulnerability; and navigating new participatory learning spaces. Through our account of this participatory research method, we show how even small forms of action-taking can improve students’ agency by giving individuals a sense of purpose and belonging through student-staff interactions.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, a group of staff and students present an account of co-research, which explores undergraduate students’ experiences of interdisciplinary learning and teaching at programme level. Adopting a collaborative ethnographic lens helped this staff-student partnership create a collegial research space to make sense of qualitative data collected during the students’ first and second years in a new undergraduate programme, MA Interdisciplinary Futures. The purpose of the paper is twofold: to offer insight into the student as co-researcher methodological process, detailing the steps taken to manage common tensions in achieving an authentic partnership; and, through a reflexive thematic analysis, to highlight three vignettes that show how students experienced an interdisciplinary curriculum design in practice, and how they began to ‘trust the process’ of nontraditional teaching methods. The findings highlight how academic developers can support student-staff co-researcher partnerships in which students gain agency and voice to influence curriculum design in interdisciplinary learning and teaching.

ABSTRACT. A dominant story circulating in higher education is that partnerships are difficult to forge, or if they exist, must take one form: faculty/staff leading students. However, when students are brought into the fold of curriculum creation, they become empowered to share their ideas and commit themselves to the work. In turn, faculty and staff are re-energized by the thoughtfulness and innovation of students. We know our students come to medical school with wide breadths of knowledge and experiences we can leverage to create partnerships across the academy and strengthen programs. Additionally, when we invite students to join us in curriculum development and implementation, we allow individuals to flex their strengths, and problem solve together. With this spirit, our medical school has developed a working group of students, faculty, and staff to create and implement workshops designed for faculty development with an emphasis on student coaching.

ABSTRACT. Universities increasingly advocate for contributing to complex societal challenges in their missions and therefore implement educational initiatives that foster students’ societal engagement. However, the forms this engagement takes vary considerably, ranging from more top-down, curriculum-embedded activities to more bottom-up, student-led expressions such as student-activism. These bottom-up activities also demonstrate that students exercise agency in choosing how, and on which societal issues, they wish to engage. The ways in which higher education institutions respond to these different forms of engagement also differ significantly. These variations reveal tensions rooted in conflicting institutional logics, underlying values, power dynamics, and the political nature of societal engagement in higher education. This raises a key question: which forms of societal engagement do universities deem legitimate, and which do they seek to foster? To explore this, this paper draws on examples at the Vrije Universiteit as a case, an institution that has a historically strong societal connection and actively promotes the cultivation of a “Broader Mind” among their students. We aim to critically examine diverse forms of student engagement that emerge on our campus, and how these are shaped, supported and/or constrained by the university. Rather than treating engagement as a top-down ambition, this paper highlights the importance of including students’ voices in educational reforms and recognizing their (potential) role as change agents in the university’s societal mission.

ABSTRACT. : In this practice paper, we present two exemplar student-faculty curriculum enhancement initiatives, each focusing on separate aspects of the neurodivergent STEMM student experience within a selective research-intensive Russell Group institution. The first exemplar aimed co-produced an innovative learning resource on the neuroscience of ADHD and its impact on higher education teaching and learning experience, which subsequently formed part of the learning resources for a module on the Science of Learning offered at Imperial College London. By harnessing the collective lived experience of faculty and students diagnosed with ADHD into informing the design, production and delivery of this resource, we explored the affordances of authentic curriculum development aimed at enhancing the educational experience not just for neurodivergent staff and students, but for all. The second exemplar established a research partnership between UG students and faculty on exploring the impact of misophonia across Imperial student cohorts and make recommendations for enhancing the educational experience for these students and beyond. This project brought together students from the Natural Science and Engineering students with faculty expertise on educational neuroscience and neurodivergence in a bid to derive evidence-based recommendations to inform institutional and operational policy. We report on the procedural pipeline of each initiative, highlighting the benefits and challenges met and overcome along the way. Finally, we identify next steps in ensuring the long-term impact and sustainability of both process and outcomes.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the first phase of a design-based research (DBR) project exploring how student agency is conceptualized and supported in STEM higher education. Recognized as a key competence for navigating complexity and change, student agency is increasingly prioritized in policy agendas but remains inconsistently defined and underexplored in STEM contexts. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) following PRISMA guidelines. A structured search across Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC produced 138 studies; after screening, 39 were included for analysis based on predefined criteria: focus on student agency, STEM disciplines, and higher education settings. Preliminary findings suggest most studies are U.S.-based, focused on first-year students, and examine agency mainly at the course level, often linked to engagement and choice. Qualitative methods and small samples dominate, with limited theoretical grounding or validated instruments. The full synthesis will inform the next phases of this DBR project, which include stakeholder inquiry and the co-design and evaluation of a curriculum-parallel intervention. By analyzing how student agency is currently framed, understood, and enacted in STEM higher education, this work contributes to theoretical clarity and addresses gaps in underexplored disciplinary contexts. It also provides practical guidance for educators, academic developers, and institutional leaders, supporting curriculum design and institutional strategies to foster student agency in increasingly digital and interdisciplinary STEM environments.

ABSTRACT. Addressing contemporary societal challenges, including sustainability and the creation of inclusive communities, requires interdisciplinary learning environments that nurture autonomy, collaboration, and active engagement. Learning agency—defined as the motivation, confidence, and capability to direct and sustain one’s learning—is a critical higher-order competency in such settings. Despite its importance, higher education has few validated instruments for assessing agency and limited curriculum models that intentionally support its development in interdisciplinary programmes. This paper reports on the validation of a Learning Agency Scale and its application in an interdisciplinary, inclusion-focused programme at a Spanish university. Drawing on responses from 238 students, exploratory factor analysis confirmed a clear three-factor structure—seeking scaffolding, problem solving, and meaning making. Pre–post comparisons showed a statistically significant improvement in students’ problem-solving agency, suggesting that the programme’s curriculum design, which integrates authentic societal cases, reflective activities, and collaborative inquiry, effectively strengthens agentic learning behaviours. The study contributes a validated measurement tool for interdisciplinary higher education and demonstrates how intentional curriculum design can enhance student agency, offering actionable insights for academic developers seeking to empower learners and transform curricula toward inclusive, socially responsive education.

ABSTRACT. Education is not neutral; it is a political act in an ecosystem that does not transparently acknowledge this truth (Giroux, 2017). In this paper, we maintain that a critical reflective stance questioning should be a central agentic move of educational developers. We argue that by adopting a critical stance educational developers are positioned to be change agents who inspire the interrogation of taken-for-granted assumptions and unchallenged epistemologies. We further maintain that educational developers can advance the broader goal of equity and social justice in higher education when they adopt the tenets of critical pedagogy in their practices with academic staff. Thus, this paper introduces a Critical Educational Development (CED) conceptual framework undergirded by the principles of critical pedagogy. In accord with the principles of critical pedagogy, the CED framework identifies EDs as political actors who respond to the need for societal and systemic change within and beyond higher education. Our CED conceptual framework is a tool for EDs to empower faculty to interrogate their pedagogical and curriculum choices using a critical lens that examines power and hierarchical relationships. We further argue that by fostering a reflexive approach to their educational development endeavors, critical education developers adopt a strong professional identity as agents for advancing social justice in higher education. CED encourages academic staff to adopt actionable and concrete ways to disrupt the status quo by exploring and applying the principles of critical pedagogy.

ABSTRACT. In this paper we will explore the active, agentic role academic developers can play in shaping teaching cultures, rather than conceiving of them as passive facilitators or instrumentalist implementers of policy, promoting trust as a fundamental principle that enables agency. We will draw on recent work investigating how "trust in the academic development space can be engendered and sustained through consistent, intentional practice” (McDonagh, L and Sanders, E.C., 2025), presenting selected findings and practical applications that may be said to support agency and the creation and sharing of knowledge in teaching and learning. We will demonstrate ways in which a relational approach to academic development can influence the ways in which we construct individual and collective professional identities, and how these develop our own agency and the agency of the staff with whom we work.

ABSTRACT. For decades, research on student learning has focused primarily on factors influencing academic achievement and performance, with academic development initiatives similarly prioritising the enhancement of students’ academic outcomes. A growing body of research now demonstrates that emotions play a crucial role in learning, and that students experience emotional challenging situations during their education. Emotional challenges in teaching can harm both student and teacher well-being, suggesting that such challenges are a significant concern for academic development. This contribution is based on a narrative review, synthesising 65 empirical studies. The review identifies four categories of emotionally challenging teaching situations: dissections, situations during work-based learning, anxiety in certain subjects, or sensitive topics like injustice, human suffering, and identity. These challenges can evoke strong emotional reactions, existential reflections, and professional dilemmas, all of which must be addressed to enable students to focus on academic content. Findings also reveal that supportive classroom environments help students adapt and find value in these challenges. Academic teachers may feel unprepared to address students’ emotional needs, highlighting a gap in academic development and teacher training. This paper argues for broadening the view of a teacher’s role to include emotional care alongside knowledge expertise and learning facilitation. As academic developers, we should integrate emotional awareness into teacher training through activities such as scenario-based discussions and reflective practices, equipping teachers to better support students in navigating the emotional challenges they encounter.

ABSTRACT. This study explores how academic developers across China, Canada, and the United Kingdom understand and use storytelling in faculty professional development. Drawing on a phenomenographic approach, the research investigates variations in how storytelling is experienced and conceptualized across diverse contexts. Semi-structured interviews with seven academic developers revealed four interrelated dimensions of storytelling practice: as a pedagogical and professional skill, a medium for emotional engagement and safety, a catalyst for community and peer learning, and a tool for reflective practice and knowledge integration. While these functions are consistent, their enactments are culturally shaped: Chinese participants emphasized relational trust and harmony, whereas Western participants highlighted reflection and evidence-based reasoning. Transnational developers navigated hybrid practices, blending global pedagogical frameworks with local relational norms. The findings position storytelling as a strategic and transformative boundary practice that connects different cultural and institutional logics, reframing it as essential for building trust, navigating resistance, and fostering professional identity formation. The study contributes to a more nuanced, culturally attuned understanding of storytelling’s potential in academic development and underscores its significance for fostering faculty learning, community, and reflective growth across diverse educational systems.

ABSTRACT. What happens when academic developers use storytelling as their main research methodology? This paper reports on a study that interviewed 50+ professors in various disciplines and at different types of institutions in the United States and simply asked them to recount a story that stands out from their career. The results from this simple prompt were surprising even to us researchers. The study used a holistic theory from yoga philosophy as the interpretive framework in order to develop a holistic understanding of the faculty experience. The paper will explain the framework and summarize the methods and results of the study, with particular emphasis on findings about faculty agency in post-pandemic burnout and under political attacks on the professoriate. This study has implications for academic developers who want to take a holistic approach to program development and promote well-being and fulfillment at the same time they develop competencies in their faculty.

ABSTRACT. How can educational development practitioners support faculty working to develop equity-minded, antiracist writing pedagogy? In this paper, I present and analyze a qualitative action research study on two faculty communities of practice at a public research university in the United States. These faculty (n=10) teach writing in their respective disciplines, and their purpose was to generate antiracist writing pedagogy. Through grounded analyses, I report on what faculty participants found most meaningful (students’ affective experiences) and most challenging (translating individual narrative experience into antiracist pedagogical practices for a class).

This paper invites scholars and practitioners in educational development to explore this action research study in two ways: (1) a SOTL project that brings student voices in to shape faculty development; (2) an example of a faculty CoP that works toward equity-centered teacher development.

ABSTRACT. Aim: To describe the perceptions of Nutrition students and instructors regarding skills related to scientific writing and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and evaluate the accuracy of detection tools. Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted. First, two focus groups (9 students and 9 instructors), selected through convenience sampling and moderated by an external researcher, were conducted. Second, 50 original abstracts (published in a Chilean scientific journal during 2019) and a similar 50 AI-generated abstracts were analyzed using GPTZero Premium and by nutrition instructors. Transcriptions of focus groups were analyzed through thematic analysis, using NVivo, and ROC curves were built to determine the accuracy of AI-use detection of instructors and GPTZero in different scenarios. Findings: Qualitative findings highlighted the need for clear guidance on AI use, particularly regarding transparency, ethics, and academic integrity. Students mainly described AI as a practical aid for writing tasks, whereas instructors were more cautious and questioned its contribution to critical and reflective thinking. In the quantitative analysis, GPTZero detected with 100% accuracy AI-generated texts (sensitivity=1.00), whereas 4% of original texts were classified as AI-generated (“False Positives”, specificity=0.96) with an AUC of 0.98 (95% CI: 0.95-1.00). Instructors had lower accuracy in detecting AI-generated texts (AUC=0.54; 0.44-0.64, p<0.001) than GPTZero. Significance: The central theme regarding AI use in scientific writing centers on guidelines related to academic integrity, whereas instructors cannot accurately detect AI-misuse. AI-detection tools might be only useful when policies completely restrict AI use, highlighting the need to develop clear policies and frameworks for its use.

ABSTRACT. In this session, we present findings from a study in which the “writerly” framework of teaching and learning is applied to faculty development programs provided by universities on two different continents. Based on the work of literary theorist Roland Barthes (1974), the writerly framework envisions learning as an interpretive process that empowers students (and teachers) by granting students the agency to become producers rather than consumers of their learning. By dividing the writerly framework into three dimensions—creating spaces, engaging in dialogue, and making meaning—the Writerly Protocol helps teachers, developers, and researchers both design and analyze exemplary moments in courses where the writerly might occur. The study examines two different modalities of faculty development using the writerly protocol. The first program, offered at a US research university, is a year-long experience in which 6-8 participants first identify an emerging teaching practice which they implement in their courses then design and develop a collaborative research project to assess the effectiveness of the new practice. The second is an optional module in the basic pedagogical certification program for university instructors at a Norwegian research university. This is a two-day course that focuses on student interaction with course content and other students that simultaneously aims to make the workshop a writerly experience while also enabling participants to employ a writerly approach in their courses. The findings have implications for how to articulate, assess, and adapt standards for faculty development as a writerly pedagogy.

ABSTRACT. Articles published in scientific journals on university face-to-face lectures reflect the tension between their educational value and the need to understand methodological complementarity in line with the academic policies of the EHEA. Two research questions debate the continuity of the lecture: Does interest in renovating the lecture remain among the international research community? And what improvements to the lecture do the reviewed articles suggest? A systematic review is conducted following the PRISMA protocol, with a focus on theoretical and methodological rigor, prioritizing documents published in journals with an impact factor. The search strategy was applied consistently across three databases: ERIC, PsycInfo, and Web of Science. The results provide data on: a) the indicators framing the scientific visibility and institutional backing of articles selected, and b) the multidimensional classification of structural components: perspectives, guiding aim, type of study, and the formative, technical, and critical aspects of the articles. The discussion and conclusion will provide answers to both research questions based on the evidence found in the research, and the results will be evaluated in line with the authors’ concerns about the complexity of oral communication through which teachers and students connect and collaborate in the construction of knowledge. The educational implications are discussed in terms of their alignment with a socio-constructivist perspective and four key areas for analyzing educational innovation: lecture design and structure; interaction and participation; methodology and technology; and evaluation of the innovation.

ABSTRACT. Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is a transformative pedagogical framework in higher education that promotes student-centered, interdisciplinary learning by engaging learners in real-world challenges. Within the Consortium, 12 partner institutions have adopted CBL as a shared educational model to connect learners, educators, and stakeholders in collaboratively addressing complex societal issues. Although diversity enriches learning ecosystems, it also raises questions about pedagogical coherence, comparability, and sustainability of the framework across different universities. This paper examines how CBL can be scaled and aligned within a multi-institutional context by analyzing 17 challenges from Uni1, Uni2, and Uni3. Using an adapted version of the CBL Compass (van den Beemt et al., 2022), the study identifies a set of transferable dimensions that define mature CBL vision, teaching and learning practices, and stakeholder engagement, while acknowledging local contextualization. Research findings show strong adherence to core CBL principles such as authenticity, interdisciplinarity, and collaborative problem-solving, alongside variation in stakeholder involvement and assessment strategies. These differences reveal how institutional visions shape the implementation of shared pedagogical models. The study argues that the adapted CBL Compass can serve not only as an evaluation framework but also as a strategic tool for fostering dialogue, promoting alignment, and enhancing quality within European University alliances or other university consortia that adopt a shared pedagogical framework. By translating local experimentation into collective learning, the paper highlights pathways toward a coherent and sustainable European model for challenge-driven education and outlines trajectories for educational development within the Consortium.

ABSTRACT. This talk will be an engaging journey of ideas on how hybrid teaching has been and can be used to support inclusion, flexibility and internationalization. Synchronous hybrid teaching (also known as hybrid flexible learning or hybrid learning) is a form of teaching and learning that has become more popular, especially since the pandemic, and addressed the challenge of students online and on campus being taught simultaneously. A number of institutions have adopted different approaches, and throughout 2025 a European-wide project has been in progress to share good practice and ideas. The central idea of the talk is that there are a number of ways this teaching and learning approach can be beneficial to educators and students if adopted appropriately. In terms of relevance to academic practice we would highlight how hybrid teaching could be adopted as part of practice to provide flexibility for students. We will also explain how this can also contribute to universities' internationalization agenda. There are also challenges with the approach and we will give guidance on how this can be mitigated. Overall, the talk will be of use to practitioners as we will give clear guidance advice and information on how this can be adopted successfully to benefit staff and student experience.

ABSTRACT. This session presents a case study of a public U.S. university’s initiative to revisit, evaluate, and strategically iterate its undergraduate community-engaged learning (CEL) curriculum and requirements after more than a decade of implementation. The existing model, while effective in earlier contexts, has begun to present challenges related to student experience, faculty capacity, and institutional scalability. We will share the rationale for revisiting this approach, our evaluation design, key findings from stakeholder engagement, and lessons learned from the strategic iteration process. Participants will gain practical frameworks and resources for assessing, adapting, and strengthening their own high-impact practices (HIPs) to better align with evolving student needs and institutional realities.

ABSTRACT. This presentation highlights the importance of combining Action-Research (AR) and Work-Based Learning (WBL). While WBL has not been often combined with AR it is, nevertheless, recognized as a methodology which helps foster researcher and university teacher agency. How does the practical inquiry and collaborative process of AR trigger paradigmatic shifts on how researchers approach research methodology? Based on a qualitative approach, we illustrate how the combination of both AR and WBL enhances the inquiry process of and makes researchers reflect upon their research methods and readjust their AR roadmap, a process which fosters researchers’ practical knowledge and agency. The findings suggest that the combination of AR and WBL helped transform researchers’views and made them more aware of the systemic challenges faced by university teachers. Instead of focusing only on teaching practice, researchers adopted a more systematic approach, considering the institutional context that shapes teaching and learning within the university. For education and training policy, these perspectives advocate for more participatory, contextualized approaches that are co-constructed with actors in the field. AR, collaborative and contextualised methodologies capable of capturing both the dynamics of agency should be promoted to address the challenges faced by higher education professionals, stakeholders, and practitioners.

ABSTRACT. We aim to investigate the experiences of faculty members and the affordances offered by a professional development (PD) program to foster and sustain agency. Utilizing the ecological framework for teacher agency as a theoretical lens, we conducted a qualitative case study and collected data through in-depth interviews with academic developers and faculty members who completed a two-year Change Lab (CL) program. Our analysis revealed three major findings addressing the PD takeaways and affordances for agentic behaviors. First, the program created opportunities for collaborative inquiry practices with various stakeholders. Through the CL, the faculty experienced responsive dialogic interactions with academic developers, collegial exchanges, and partnership with students. Second, collaborative inquiry practices led faculty to develop a reflective stance, through which they could transform their practices and perspectives and develop agency for continuous PD. Finally, the localized nature of the PD and institutional support created a larger sphere of influence and increased visibility beyond CL, which is embodied in the informal dissemination of CL outcomes through collegial interactions with non-participants, institutional changes, and new leadership roles. These takeaways resonate with the ecological dimensions of teacher agency (iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative) since the faculty could build upon their past experiences, envision new perspectives, and utilize institutional and CL-enabled affordances while making educational decisions. This research suggests new implications for academic development by foregrounding the role of faculty-led localized PD practices and institutional support in fostering and sustaining agency.

ABSTRACT. This presentation contributes to the conference theme of ‘Agency and Strategy’ within the context of a university’s implementation of graduate attributes. Graduate attributes (GA) represent the particular qualities, skills and knowledge that the university wishes to develop in its graduates. Although many universities forward such qualities, their actual implementation within the university’s activities may be uneven. Barriers to their development include lack of university-wide discussion and consultation and difficulties with relating them to the curriculum, often resulting in lack of commitment to the GA project from staff. In order to address these issues academic development staff engaged in a series of developmental workshops called a change laboratory. During the workshops staff were supported in developing their collective agency to confront and reflect on conflicts within the GA project and to envision practical approaches to resolve them. Commensurate with the literature staff identified managerial orientation rather than an emphasis on academic and student interests as a major conflict hampering the GA project. Flowing from this, a reflective grid was developed which highlighted how the university’s GA may challenge staff’s pedagogical and disciplinary assertions and so prompt improved engagement.

ABSTRACT. This chapter takes the form of a qualitative literature review and conceptual paper that synthesises existing empirical studies to build and refine a conceptualisation of Lesson Study as a cyclical, resilience-building process for lecturers in higher education. Universities increasingly require lecturers to navigate complex student needs, shifting curricula, and intensified performance pressures, thus demanding resilient academic staff who can sustain effective teaching under stress. Drawing on empirical work published between 2020 and 2024, this review conceptualises Lesson Study as a collaborative cycle of joint planning, observation, reflection, and re-teaching that centres student learning while providing structured psychosocial and professional support for lecturers. The chapter illustrates how Lesson Study cycles provide lecturers with opportunities for critical reflection on pedagogical practice, emotional processing, and collective problem-solving. These processes are shown to strengthen key dimensions of resilience, including professional agency, relational connectedness, and adaptive expertise—by positioning lecturers as co-researchers of their own practice. This study therefore positions Lesson Study cycle as a primary pedagogical and professional development mechanism through which lecturers build sustainable, context-responsive resilience. The review offers higher education leaders and academic development practitioners a practical, research-informed framework for designing continuing professional development that simultaneously enhances teaching quality and nurtures resilient lecturers in demanding institutional environments.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the strategic role of postgraduate certificates in academic practice as catalysts for higher education transformation, focusing on the development and delivery of Postgraduate Certificate in Empowering Education (PGCEE) at De Montfort University (DMU), UK. Designed in response to sector-wide and institutional demands, including the long‑tail impact of the Covid‑19 pandemic, persistent inequities in student outcomes, and DMU’s 'Empowering University' strategy, the PGCEE seeks to enact a more radical, justice‑centred approach to lecturer training. Comprising four modules grounded in active learning pedagogy, the programme places equity, accessibility, and critical reflexivity at its core.

This paper foregrounds a module called, Reimagining Higher Education: Addressing Inequality & Justice in Educational Practice, which interrogates power, inequality and justice through multiple critical lenses. Participants are encouraged to examine their positionality, challenge normative assumptions about teaching and learning, and design interventions that address inequitable practices within their own institutional contexts. Drawing on evaluative data from the programme’s completed cohorts, including participant feedback and examples of designed interventions, we explore how the PGCEE builds educator agency and institutional capacity for meaningful change. We argue that postgraduate certificates, when intentionally redesigned through an equity‑driven framework, can operate as powerful strategic levers for organisational transformation, advancing more inclusive and socially just higher education environments.

ABSTRACT. GEN-CREA arises from the need to coordinate all institutional efforts at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili to develop a long-term teaching staff training strategy for awareness and prevention of gender-based violence in higher education. The project aimed at creating a toolbox available to all the teaching staff with the objective of introducing training on gender-based violence in an overarching way. This teaching innovation project stands out for its co-creation with the university community, its transversality and the institutional alignment with a synergy between the Equality Unit (UI), the Institute of Education Sciences (ICE), the Educational Resources Service (SRED) and the Vice-rectorate for Academic Policy and Quality (VPAQ) at URV. The toolbox has been tested in two training pilots (February and September 2025) and has received positive feedback from users after discussing its usefulness and applicability. The toolbox consists of different resources that contain information and examples of applying the gender perspective in assessment of students, in learning environments or in the classroom. One of the most innovative elements is the introduction of AI to support teaching staff in assessing the gender dimension in their teaching guides and suggest improvements. The tools and its feedback (lessons learnt and good practices) have been disseminated among relevant networks and entities through a Multiplier Event and by means of papers presented at conferences or on fora such as the Inter-University Council of Catalonia, the Xarxa Vives, the RUIGEU and the Aurora International Alliance.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines how epistemic violence shapes the agency of Muslim female students of immigrant backgrounds in Canadian universities, challenging dominant narratives of higher education as an inclusive and equitable space. Drawing on qualitative research based on 54 semi-structured interviews, the study identifies two key configurations through which agency becomes constrained: constrained conformity and self-delegitimation. These patterns reveal how pressures of self-surveillance and internalized hegemonic norms operate beneath official discourses of diversity and inclusion. Academic success, often portrayed as a pathway to equality and belonging, emerges in participants’ narratives as a burden of social survival rather than empowerment. By unpacking these subtle dynamics of epistemic violence, the paper highlights asymmetries in agency that shape students’ possibilities for belonging and voice. The study contributes to the field of academic development by advancing a critical understanding of inclusion that goes beyond access and representation, urging universities to engage more deeply with the epistemic and affective dimensions of equity in higher education.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines how student agency develops among Roma learners who succeed academically despite early adversity and discrimination. Drawing on findings from the EU-funded SCIREARLY project, we present a life-course analysis of four Roma students in Spain who completed higher education against the odds, in a context where 71% of Roma youth aged 18–24 leave the education system before finishing upper secondary schooling. Our conceptual framework integrates Appadurai’s “capacity to aspire” and Dewey’s notion of situated agency, and the analysis represents partial results of a broader study involving 53 interviews with young adults and 40 nominated significant persons across eight European countries. Findings show that aspirations and agency operate in a mutually reinforcing cycle. Role models - family members, teachers, or peers who convey support and sustain high expectations - expand students’ sense of what is possible and help translate aspirations into concrete action. A supportive academic environment, including peers, committed teachers, and opportunities for family involvement, nurtures their motivation and academic achievement. However, significant blind spots, such as the limited representation of Roma histories and cultural knowledge in the curriculum, still need to be addressed to further enhance educational participation and retention. We discuss implications for practice, highlighting the importance of fostering role models, enabling teacher’s supportive attitudes, strengthening family engagement, and embedding inclusive curricular content. The findings also contribute to theory by foregrounding the interplay of individual and collective agency in enhancing Roma participation in higher education.

ABSTRACT. This paper critically examines field-based teaching in Norwegian higher education focusing on how instructors grapple with how to contribute to inclusive and accessible teaching. As part of a larger development project, we interviewed 27 academic and professional staff and psychologists from a university in Norway. Our analysis of these interviews focuses on three thematic areas: barriers in field-based teaching, inclusive teaching practice, and disciplinary skill development. This work builds existing international scholarship where barriers to field-based teaching is well documented, and offers a specific, local analysis of inclusive field-based teaching in Norwegian higher education where we draw linkages between Universal Design for Learning principles and the development of disciplinary skills. For academic developers working on accessibility/inclusion this paper is particularly valuable for deepening understanding of the specificity and nuances of field-based teaching (and the unique challenges and possibilities it presents for inclusive teaching).

ABSTRACT. Universities increasingly enrol students who live far from campus, yet institutional support structures continue to assume spatial proximity and temporal flexibility. As accommodation shortages persist, commuting has become the norm for low-income students, whose mobility is shaped by geography, class and ethnicity. This paper rethinks commuter students not as marginal or time-poor, but as agentic educational subjects who establish productive educational lives in motion. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad (1991) and rhythmanalysis (2004), this study explores how first-generation commuter graduates navigated the demands of an uneven mobility landscape, inflexible institutional time, and the pressures of everyday life. The research forms part of a doctoral study at a and adopts a flexible, retrospective ethnographic approach—ethnography on the move (Fataar, 2010, 2015, 2019). Data were generated through multiple in-depth interviews over 24 months and were analysed thematically. Findings show that commuting functioned as a demanding form of academic labour through which students developed spatial literacy, bodily endurance and temporal coordination. By refunctioning buses into mobile study and recovery spaces; adapting to volatile and unsafe transport systems; and enacting micro-tactics such as pre-emptive planning, route recalibration and alignment with rigid university timetables. Additionally, affirming and flexible peer networks redistributed academic, emotional and material resources to sustain their participation across fragmented spaces and times. These findings demonstrate that educational becoming is a spatial, temporal, bodily and relational endeavour. The study argues for mobility-attuned AD research that recognises the differentiated and often overlooked typologies of agency enacted by commuter students.

ABSTRACT. Reflective practice is an essential, durable skill required by students in higher education to anchor learning and tailor outcomes to their goals. Reflection is the aspect of any experience (whether in an academic course, work setting or personal pursuit) that has the most potential to contribute to an individual’s growth and life-long learning. This session shares the results of field-testing the newly developed CLEAR WIL (Work-Integrated Learning) Reflection Process. Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a form of curricular experiential education that formally integrates a student’s academic studies with quality experiences within a workplace or practice setting. Reflection is widely recognized as an important component of work-integrated learning fostering deeper understanding and enhancing personal and professional growth. Reflection serves an essential role in facilitating knowledge transformation in WIL. The CLEAR approach aims to mobilize reflection for the learner and support the development of a life-long reflective practice by moving purposefully through sequential stages, each building upon the last with a view to maximizing learning.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the development of a data-driven ecosystem that integrates longitudinal assessments and reflection to support continuous evaluation of student competencies in a newly established American dental school. The system integrates three critical applications (Qualtrics, SharePoint, and Power BI) to collect, manage, and analyse thousands of evaluations generated from competency-based interactions performed by 60 dental students within a semester. Grounded in social constructivism, learner autonomy, and authentic learning theory, the system is designed to support student-centered, practice-oriented learning. By reconciling and organizing data into a dynamic dashboard that updates twice a week, the school enables longitudinal tracking of learner progress, provides faculty with evidence to guide curricular strategies, and enables senior leaders of the organization to make informed decisions. Through the shared interpretation of millions of data points, students, faculty, and academic leaders engage in ongoing conversations about curricular needs, curricular quality, expectations alignment, and learner’s growth. This paper reflects on the impact this system has had on the academic organization and how the system has enabled a space for the student body to evaluate their skillsets as they prepare, through practice-oriented experiences within an integrated curriculum, to join a demanding workforce. As this system continues to evolve, the goal is to generate student performance foresight, anticipating knowledge gaps and providing early, personalized support to ensure timely competency acquisition from the student body. The paper concludes by discussing replicability in other academic contexts.

ABSTRACT. Educational Developers (EDs) hold a central role in shaping teaching and learning, yet their knowledge practices remain underexplored. This paper investigates how EDs in the UK higher education conceptualise, value, and enact educational theory, and why. Drawing on qualitative survey responses from 30 EDs across diverse institutional contexts, the study combines thematic analysis with the Epistemic Plane from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to illuminate EDs’ epistemic practices. Findings show that EDs conceptualise theory as explanatory ideas that strengthen judgement, coherence, and principled decision-making. Theory is strongly valued but enacted with considerable variability: many use it explicitly, while others draw on it tacitly, guided by audience, purpose, and institutional pressures. Approaches are predominantly flexible, reflecting a context-responsive stance shaped by disciplinary diversity, relational work, and institutional constraints. Mapping responses onto the Epistemic Plane reveals hybrid epistemic profiles grounded in both principled and situational considerations. The study demonstrates that EDs engage with theory more deeply and explicitly than often assumed, yet structural conditions moderate how openly it can be foregrounded. These insights highlight EDs’ epistemic agency and underscore the need for institutional arrangements that recognise EDs as knowledge professionals capable of advancing socially just, conceptually informed Educational Development and the wider academia.

ABSTRACT. This paper draws on work on knowledge forms produced by social realists such as Bernstein (2000) to explore the production and use of knowledge in the field of Educational Development. According to Shay (2012) the tendency in the field is to use and produce a form of knowledge termed ‘codified practice’ (Gamble, 2006) which is heavily context bound and which, in contrast to the abstract, systemetised tehorised knowledge of Bernstein’s ‘vertical discourse’ does not have the power to transform teaching and learning. This paper draws on Archer’s (1995, 1996, 2000) social realism explore structural and cultural conditions in the field and identify reasons why more work drawing on Bernstein’s (2000) vertical discourse is not produced. To do this, it uses interviews with researchers and researcher practitioners in universities in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia. In identifying what constrains the emergence of theorised knowledge, the paper has significance for the way Educational Development work is structured and located at institutional levels.

ABSTRACT. This study explores methodological trends in academic development research, with the aim of identifying specific characteristics of the field. An exploratory review of articles published in the International Journal for Academic Development between 2014 and 2023 was conducted. The analysis revealed a clear prevalence of qualitative approaches (75.5%), followed by mixed methods (17.6%) and quantitative methods (6.9%). Interviews, reflective journals, conversations and qualitative questionnaires emerge as the main research tools, reflecting the contextual and relational nature of the work of academic developers. The results suggest that these methodologies do not indicate epistemic closure, but rather a growing maturity of the field, capable of adapting to the complexities of academic contexts. The study therefore proposes that these methodologies can be considered “signature methodologies” of the sector, contributing to the epistemic development of the discipline.

ABSTRACT. The University Capacity Development Grants (UCDGs) are designed to strengthen teaching, learning and student support across South African universities. This paper offers an ethnographic account of how UCDG-funded initiatives were enacted within a nascent School of Education at a University of Technology, focusing on a tutor and supplemental instruction programme intended to enhance student access with success. Guided by Margaret Archer’s Structure–Culture–Agency framework, the study examines how institutional structures, cultural norms and the agency of lecturers and students intersected to shape the implementation process.

The findings show that while tutors played a crucial role in supporting student learning, their recruitment and day-to-day coordination depended heavily on the agentic efforts of lecturers and students who sought to sustain the programme despite unstable institutional conditions. Structural constraints-including leadership turnover, unclear administrative procedures and inconsistent financial processes-created uncertainty around tutor remuneration. Culturally, discretionary decision-making norms meant that payment rested largely on the authority of the dean, resulting in significant delays and, ultimately, lump-sum disbursements with unintended receiver of tax revenue (SARS) implications for student tutors. These experiences eroded morale, diminished trust and weakened the value-for-money intentions of the UCDG, undermining the transformative aspirations of SDG 4: Quality Education.

The study argues that neither agency nor goodwill alone can compensate for fragile structures and ambiguous cultural expectations. For UCDGs to fulfil their developmental purpose, universities require coherent Standard Operating Procedures, stable leadership practices and transparent administrative systems. Such reforms would ensure that capacity development initiatives meaningfully enhance student success.

ABSTRACT. This session presents a qualitative study that examines how students enact agency while engaging in peer feedback during a collaborative writing assignment in an undergraduate-level science course. Drawing on the notion of feedback encounters as an analytical lens, the study adopts a process-level approach to trace how students make sense of and act on feedback across formal, elicited, and incidental feedback interactions over time. Analysis of rich, multi-sourced qualitative data from 18 students—consisting of stimulated recall interviews, students’ drafts, written feedback given and received, and audio-recordings of in-class feedback interactions—revealed that much of students’ self-feedback resulting in revisions originated during reviewing and shaped how later peer comments were interpreted. Beyond formal peer review, students actively elicited additional inputs to verify, calibrate and operationalise their ideas for improvement. Incidental feedback encounters, such as overheard feedback directed at someone else and informal peer talk, often became consequential resources for students’ meaning making. These findings position peer feedback as a temporally distributed process, shaped by students’ agency and the dynamics of the relational contexts in which it unfolds. For university teachers and academic developers, the findings point to the importance of aligning formal feedback designs with students’ self-identified needs and dilemmas, as well as cultivating relational spaces that allow informal and student-initiated interactions to occur.

ABSTRACT. Feedback within initial teacher education plays a pivotal role in shaping the professional identity and pedagogical agency of preservice teachers. Yet, feedback provided during work integrated learning often functions as a procedural task rather than a reflective and empowering developmental process. This study investigates the degree of alignment between the feedback offered by university tutors and mentor teachers, and how such alignment influences the development of agency among preservice teachers. Grounded in Sadler’s philosophical perspectives on feedback and Shulman’s model of pedagogical reasoning and action, the study employed qualitative document analysis of written feedback collected over three years from forty-two preservice teachers. The thematic analysis revealed areas of shared understanding, including learner engagement, classroom management, time management, lesson planning, assessment practices, voice projection and the integration of teaching strategies and learning resources. However, significant misalignments emerged in lesson presentation, subject knowledge and the ability to communicate concepts clearly and coherently. These inconsistencies constrain preservice teachers’ ability to act with confidence and agency in the classroom. The study is significant as it highlights how fragmented feedback practices can undermine the coherence of teacher preparation and weaken the transformative potential of academic development. By promoting intentional alignment of feedback processes between universities and schools, this research demonstrates how collaborative partnerships can strengthen professional learning communities, enhance reflective practice and advance organisational learning to improve teaching quality within higher education.

ABSTRACT. University teaching is often conducted in relative isolation, while it is simultaneously characterised by rapid change, including the impact of artificial intelligence and shifting student background and expectations. This paper presents and analyses the VIN concept—Voluntary, Interdisciplinary & Non-hierarchic—as a model for collegial pedagogical development through structured peer observation and dialogic engagement. VIN, initiated in 2022, was evaluated and refined and within the Pedagogically Rewarded Teachers (PRT) network at Umeå university over a three-year period. The model is based on interdisciplinary triads. Following an initial planning meeting, two colleagues observe a teaching session presented by the third colleague, after which the triad engages in a joint reflective dialogue. After three completed cycles, the process concludes with a summative reflective meeting. Empirical material was generated through participant observation, reflective dialogues, and semi-structured focus group interviews, informing successive adaptations of the model. Barriers to collegial auscultation described in the literature include time constraints, concerns about receiving feedback, top-down initiated activities, and the lack of participant stratification based on teaching experience. To overcome these challenges, we designed VIN as an emergent, horizontally organised practice of collegial inquiry rather than a delegated form of distributed leadership. Over time, the focus shifted from feedback on individual teaching performances towards the co-creation of shared teaching experiences. This shift reduced evaluative anxiety and supported the emergence of a shared pedagogical language oriented towards pedagogical challenges and possible courses of action. Participants consistently reported VIN as a highly valued approach for developing their own teaching practice.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines how student feedback and evaluations function as mechanisms of student agency and inform strategic alignment in the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) mandatory First-Year Experience Programme (FYEP). First-year students, particularly those who are first-generation, from historically marginalised communities, or from under-resourced schools, face heightened risks of attrition and delayed progression. UKZN enrols approximately 9,000 students annually, prioritising these groups. The FYEP comprises four structured units delivered through a HyFlex model, integrating assessments, peer mentoring, and mechanisms for student voice. Drawing on survey data from student evaluations across the four units, the study explores how feedback informs programme design, enhances coherence, and aligns with institutional goals for excellent teaching, learning, and student experiences. Analysis is framed through Nancy Fraser’s social justice lens, assessing recognition, representation, and redistribution, complemented by ubuntu pedagogy, and Alf Lizzio’s Five Senses of Student Success, capturing students’ capability, connectedness, purpose, resourcefulness, and engagement with academic culture. Findings indicate that embedding structured feedback strengthens programme relevance, fosters student agency, and supports equitable access to support, while highlighting challenges with digital literacy, connectivity, and participation. The paper concludes with recommendations for using student feedback to drive evidence-informed academic development and continuous improvement in student support.

ABSTRACT. This empirical paper explores the role of dialogic, personalised feedback in fostering epistemic agency, professional mattering, and inclusive pedagogy within academic development. Drawing on a case study of a redesigned Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) programme at a UK university, we examine how feedback practices, written comments, audio recordings, video feedback, and in-person feedforward sessions contribute to institutional transformation and the emotional architecture of learning for staff. Through thematic analysis of external examiner reports, participant reflections, Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) feedback, and module evaluations, we identify feedback as a central mechanism for creating relational trust and pedagogical courage. Participants frequently described the feedback as “thoughtful,” “personalised,” and “encouraging experimentation.” Feedback was experienced as a dialogic infrastructure, providing emotional validation and scaffolding for academic identity development, particularly for new and precariously positioned educators. Our theoretical framing draws on the “compassion turn” in academic development (Waddington & Bonaparte, 202, 2024a, 2024b), sociomaterial perspectives on feedback (Ajjawi & Boud, 2018), and scholarship on mattering and relational pedagogy (Spaeth, 2024; Gravett, 2022). Rather than viewing feedback as an isolated teaching act, we position it as a strategic practice of inclusion, retention, and agency. We discuss the institutional significance of feedback cultures in staff development and conclude by outlining our ongoing, five-year longitudinal study, which tracks the influence of this programme on educator confidence, peer relationships, and student outcomes, including its potential impact on the UK National Student Survey (NSS) teaching and learning scores.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores academic staff perceptions of Teaching and Learning Units (TLUs) and their implications for enhancing academic development agency. Emphasising the importance of relational agency, it argues that perceptions shape relationship dynamics that enable or constrain academic development work. Drawing on a mixed-format survey conducted at an Australian university, complemented by data from collaborating institutions, the study investigated how staff understand, engage with, and experience TLUs. The findings indicate that while TLUs are broadly valued for professional learning and curriculum support, concerns persist around role clarity, access, and relevance. Staff favour practical, discipline-specific support and collaborative relationships. These findings suggest that strengthening relational agency requires clearer communication, embedded support, and context sensitive services, enabling TLUs to align more closely with academic realities and foster the trust, responsiveness, and innovation needed for effective teaching.

ABSTRACT. Debates about the proper role of generative AI technology in the curriculum and pedagogy of higher education depend, implicitly or explicitly, on an account or set of assumptions about the values of higher education. This paper argues that reflection on the form of agency enjoyed by a liberally educated individual grounds a learner-centered response to the rise of AI. Drawing on philosophical accounts of the aims of higher education, this paper reconstructs a framework for the values of the liberal arts centered on learning for human flourishing, for democratic citizenship, and for work. Together, these values describe the kind of agency that the knowledge and skills of higher education should enable. Applying this framework to the issue of AI does not settle the challenges and opportunities the technology presents, but articulating a clear set of values offers a way for academic development to have a significant impact on the direction of higher education in the AI landscape. The framework also suggests the kinds of meaningful questions that future empirical academic development research might pursue to enhance our understanding of the teaching and learning consequences of AI.

ABSTRACT. This paper proposes a sustainable Faculty Development (FD) model that fosters "Student Agency" by integrating data visualization with collaborative human networks. As higher education shifts focus from passive knowledge acquisition to the cultivation of non-cognitive abilities (e.g., GRIT, resilience), visualizing these invisible traits remains a significant challenge for instructors. We addressed this issue within a mandatory first-year experience course at Kobe Tokiwa University by utilizing an Eduinformatics approach. First, we analyzed Learning Management System (LMS) logs and found that the timing of assignment submissions significantly correlates with students' non-cognitive scores and academic grades. This establishes simple behavioral logs as an objective proxy for visualizing student agency. Second, to support these findings with effective instruction, we implemented a large-scale team-teaching system. Social network analysis revealed that this system functions as a sustainable On-the-Job Training (OJT) platform, creating a dense, cross-disciplinary faculty network. We conclude that this "Data-Informed FD" model—where objective data triggers early detection of student needs and a robust human network executes the necessary interventions—effectively enhances agency for both students and teachers, offering a scalable strategy for educational quality assurance.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the motivational drivers, professional identity, and development needs of faculty at the University of Iceland to inform strategies to improve teaching quality. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and the systemic model of Mamites et al. (2022), an online survey was distributed to 2,087 faculty members, yielding a 27% response rate. The questionnaire measured motivation, identity, professional development, and collegial networks using validated scales (α = 0.76–0.86). Results indicate strong intrinsic motivation (M = 5.15) and identified regulation (M = 5.50), reflecting teachers’ enjoyment of teaching and sense of moral responsibility. Teacher identity was robust (M = 5.53), while external regulation was moderate (M = 4.35), suggesting limited influence of rewards or student evaluations. Both full-time and adjunct faculty reported minimal pedagogical training prior to teaching (M = 4.4 and 4.8) and expressed a desire for more preparation. Interest in professional development was high (M = 5.4), but time constraints posed significant barriers (M = 3.3). Full-time faculty reported stronger collegial networks than adjuncts (M = 4.1 vs. 3.4; p < .0001), highlighting disparities in access to peer support. Findings underscore the need for institutional strategies that prioritize teaching development, allocate time for pedagogical growth, and foster collaborative cultures. Meeting teachers’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness can strengthen motivation and improve learning outcomes. These insights offer actionable recommendations for universities seeking to enhance teaching quality through systemic and cultural change.

ABSTRACT. Teaching in higher education involves a wide range of complex tasks, many of which are perceived as stress-inducing (Ross et al., 2024; van Dijk et al., 2020). Many university educators work in a competitive research-oriented work environment, with comparatively limited recognition for teaching efforts (Robinson & Hilli, 2016). Educators devote substantial time and effort to their professional practice, and meet challenges in managing the complex, fragmented, and boundaryless nature of their work (Mountz, 2016). During the last years, several disruptions have made the professional teaching practice even more complicated, i.e the digitalisation during the pandemic and the AI-transformation (Author & Stigmar 2022; Ross, 2025). In Sweden, reduced resources for teaching have increased workload without additional time, creating further challenges for university teachers (Gustavsson, 2022). But what do a university teacher do during a typical workday? The aim with this study is to explore which tasks a group of Swedish university teachers engage in during their daily practice and how they reflect on these tasks. The study is a part of the larger research project “Teachers’ Profession in Post-Pandemic Hybrid Higher Education Teaching and Learning Environments” funded by the Swedish Research Council.

ABSTRACT. The holistic approach to Faculty Development adopted by the University of Verona's growth into practice across multiple disciplinary domains. Rooted in an ecological framework, this model integrates professional, personal, and institutional dimensions of development, fostering coherence between teaching innovation and institutional transformation. In the Health area, Faculty Development supports educators and students through evidence-based active learning, flipped and team-based methodologies, and metacognitive strategies to enhance self-regulated learning. Within Law education, projects combine civic education with experiential learning, cultivating ethical awareness and social responsibility. In Economics promote reflective, internationalized, and service-oriented teaching practices. The Formarsi per Formare program provides continuous training for faculty members, while transversal skills initiatives engage both students and administrative staff in developing life and professional competences. Through these diverse yet interconnected initiatives, the holistic model demonstrates its adaptability and effectiveness in fostering innovation, collaboration, and sustainability across the entire academic ecosystem.

ABSTRACT. Since 2011, large scale programs to foster Educational and Academic Development have existed in Germany (e.g., Quality Pact for Teaching (QPL) and Funding programmes of the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education). Nevertheless, the quality of teaching and learning is evolving slowly due to factors including the lack of structural professionalization – both of lectures and their support systems (Jütte et al., 2017, Heublein et al., 2020, van den Berk, 2023a). A central but rarely addressed factor is the lack of systematically available knowledge on proven practices in Higer Education. This knowledge is often in hard-to-access formats without explicit quality assurance (van den Berk, 2023b; Schmid et al., 2020). As an answer, the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education has developed a national database “Transferkiosk”, online since March 2026, based on a theory of action approach, containing approximately 1100 projects, 150 project-activities and 170 -publications.

During the poster presentation, we will introduce our database Transferkiosk: What problem is the Transferkiosk designed to solve in the German context? What specific features have we implemented to maximise its acceptance and usage? We would like to discuss with participants what experiences they have with platforms and how we can facilitate networking and exchange between individuals and projects, as well as provide even better support for knowledge/practice transfer and adaptation?

ABSTRACT. What happens when student evaluations focus on observable teaching behaviors rather than instructor characteristics? This poster shares findings from a study using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Midterm Feedback Instrument (CTB-MFI), a behavior-based feedback tool grounded in evidence-based instructional practices. We analyzed 967 midterm-feedback student responses from 27 faculty across diverse disciplines and institutions to examine whether framing questions around specific teaching actions can reduce expression of bias. Results revealed no significant gender differences in student ratings—a notable departure from prior research showing persistent gender bias in evaluations. Instead, instructor age and teaching experience were the strongest predictors of student feedback, with mid-career faculty receiving the highest ratings across all categories. Through visual data displays and opportunities for informal discussion, this poster highlights how framing of student evaluation of teaching questions can shape student responses and explores the promise of behaviorally anchored tools for producing fairer, more actionable feedback.

ABSTRACT. During the last two decades, the concept of quality culture has become increasingly prominent in the literature on higher education. Defined as an organisational climate that is self-critical and committed to continuous improvement, quality culture integrates human dynamics—such as shared values and trust—with managerial elements including visions, policies, and operational processes (EUA, 2006). Despite its relevance, the concept often remains abstract and difficult to translate into everyday practice. This paper examines how structured reflection on quality culture can be used as a lever for institutional learning. KU Leuven outlined an approach and developed a reflection framework for mapping and strengthening quality culture in education (ICED 2022). Supported by tools such as a maturity-matrix and structured reflection guides, the approach was refined through in-depth interviews with 80 programmes. Since 2023, it has been implemented university-wide: Every programme committee, faculty and central body systematically reflects on their quality culture and translates insights into concrete action. This paper traces the pathway of our implementation and analyses the key enablers and challenges encountered throughout this process. Based on feedback from the first implementation cycle, the approach effectively builds a common language and shared understanding of the educational context. Users report that working with a shared quality-culture canvas helps untangle and align priorities and resources, bridging the gap between daily teaching practice and policy-making. Our work shows that when people can discuss how they work together, their agency in shaping teaching and learning surfaces and strengthens their collective purpose.

ABSTRACT. The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has led universities to develop policies aimed at guiding its use in teaching, learning, and assessment. Assessment has become a focal point, as GenAI challenges established assumptions about authorship, originality, validity, and evidence of learning. While institutional policies seek to safeguard academic standards, they increasingly acknowledge GenAI’s pedagogical potential. But how these documents conceptualise assessment in AI-mediated contexts and how they frame student and teacher agency? This study presents a comparative analysis of GenAI-related policies from 14 universities in Switzerland and Spain. Drawing on Chan’s AI Ecological Education Policy Framework (2023) and Bacchi’s problematisation approach (2012), it explores how assessment is constructed across governance, operational, and pedagogical levels, and how policies balance risks and opportunities associated with GenAI. Findings show that policies articulate a dual narrative. On the one hand, they recognise GenAI’s potential to enhance alternative assessment practices, including formative, authentic, and competency-based approaches; enhance feedback and support self-regulated learning. On the other, they foreground concerns about academic integrity, plagiarism, transparency, bias, and data protection, while consistently emphasising human oversight. This duality complicates decision-making for teachers and students and points to the need for academic development to support informed judgement around the use of GenAI in assessment and feedback. This includes creating spaces, frameworks, and guidance that help educators and students critically evaluate when GenAI adds pedagogical value, when its use should be limited, and how such choices can support the development of students as epistemic agents.

ABSTRACT. This paper reports on a research project conducted during the 2025–2026 academic year at the Faculty of Education of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), aiming to map current assessment and feedback practices in university teaching and to explore students’ perceptions of feedback effectiveness and their corresponding feedback uptake behaviours. The study is grounded in ongoing systemic transformations in higher education, characterized by post-pandemic shifts, the integration of artificial intelligence, and the expansion of active learning methodologies, all of which demand renewed approaches to assessment and feedback. Despite the recognized value of formative assessment as a driver of learning and self-regulation, evidence of its impact in specific institutional contexts remains limited. To respond to these needs, a quantitative survey was administered to 292 students. The instrument explored three key dimensions: assessment strategies currently used, the perceived characteristics and usefulness of feedback practices, and students’ uptake actions. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, including means and frequency distributions for each dimension of the survey. Results show a predominance of traditional assessment methods, while innovative and multimodal formats remain scarcely implemented. Feedback is perceived as constructive and formative, yet often infrequent and predominantly delivered at the end of tasks, limiting its potential to guide learning during the process. Students display a generally positive disposition toward using feedback but demonstrate limited proactivity in seeking or mobilizing it for long-term learning.

ABSTRACT. Globally, many governments have formulated education policies to promote the inclusion of disabled students, and combat disability-based discrimination within their education systems. Both Norway, a social-democratic welfare regime, and Spain, a conservative familial welfare regime, offer free and subsidized access to education for all students. Recently, both countries have implemented education policy reforms to promote the inclusion of disabled students across primary, secondary and tertiary education. Recently, The Norwegian government has introduced amendments to the university and university colleges act and has formulated a new education act. These legislative reforms accentuate new perspectives on inclusive language, individualized accommodation, and inclusive education. In a similar vein Spain introduced the Organic Law of Education. This legislation has put greater emphasis on themes such as equity, inclusion, and accessibility. This paper undertakes a qualitative comparative analysis to contrast the education policies across two diverse country-contexts. The paper will be informed by Mayring’s qualitative content policy analysis to contrast the underlying discourse of disability-based discrimination, such as ableism. This study will be based on a review of Norwegian and Spanish educational legislations, policy documents, white papers, and grey literature spanning two decades, from 2005 to 2025. The documents reviewed will be purposively sampled, and will cover themes related to inclusive language, accessibility, individualized accommodation, and inclusive education within the Norwegian and Spanish education systems. By critically undertaking policy analysis, this paper will provide a culturally nuanced, context-specific, and contemporary understanding of the perspectives surrounding ableism and inclusion across primary, secondary and tertiary education systems.

ABSTRACT. Conspiracy theories (CTs) constitute epistemically unwarranted belief systems characterized by suspicion-driven sensemaking, self-sealing reasoning, and resistance to counterevidence. While higher education research has extensively examined students’ susceptibility to CTs, the role of faculty members as potential transmitters of such beliefs remains largely untheorized—despite their central responsibility for fostering scientific literacy, epistemic judgment, and critical thinking. This conceptual paper addresses this gap by situating faculty endorsement of CTs as a challenge not only to science communication but also to academic development and professional responsibility.

Drawing on a systematic distinction between scientific and conspiratorial thinking, we develop a heuristic model that integrates key predictors, manifestations, and consequences of CT endorsement among faculty. The model organizes consequences across four interrelated levels: students (e.g., erosion of epistemic trust and learning opportunities), the academic community (e.g., weakening of professional norms and peer accountability), higher education institutions (e.g., reputational and governance risks), and society (e.g., normalization of misinformation and radicalization). By explicitly linking these effects to core dimensions of academic development—teaching quality, professional ethics, and institutional responsibility—the paper extends existing debates beyond student-focused deficit models.

The contribution concludes by outlining transferable prevention and intervention strategies at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, including pedagogical prebunking and debunking practices, faculty development initiatives, and institutional policies that balance academic freedom with epistemic responsibility. As a conceptual contribution, the paper aims to provide a scaffold for academic developers, higher education leaders, and researchers to diagnose risks, guide professional learning, and inform future empirical work on misinformation within academia.

ABSTRACT. This study examines how writing centres in higher education can function as praxis for student support pedagogy, serving as catalysts for overcoming institutional barriers to transdisciplinary learning spaces. Writing centres are academic support spaces for reading, writing and research development. These spaces play a critical role in advancing social justice in higher education. However, they possess untapped potential to foster transdisciplinary thinking and engagement. The study explores the transformative role of writing centres in providing students with effective and efficient quality support to address complex academic writing challenges. Against the backdrop of the stated objective, the study adopts a reflective approach. It interrogates the collaborative strategies used by a selected University of Technology writing centre to effectively support the vastly diversified cohort of students. Drawing on the transformational learning framework. This study advocates for the integration of writing centres into institutional structures to promote quality student support through collaborative problem-solving, enhance critical writing skills, and bridge the gap between theory and practice. The quest for a transdisciplinary writing centre relates to the institutional limitations of collaborative student support systems to address increasingly complex academic abilities and needs. By facilitating cross-disciplinary dialogue and supporting diverse modes of communication, writing centres can help break down academic silos, foster quality support and encourage students to think critically across disciplines.

ABSTRACT. Engaging students, professors and academic leaders in transforming the curriculum requires models of institutional collaboration that go beyond the impositions prescribed at institutional (macro) level. The project Universitas: profesionales que suman, developed in the last five years, is defined as a process of improvement and in-depth revision of the training offered by our institution to its undergraduate students.

In this participatory process, the promoters of the project are the Teaching Planning and Improvement Service (SPYMD), attached to the Vice-President’s Office for Teaching, and the Core Curriculum Institute (ICC), which forms part of the Vice-President’s Office for Students. They promote macro-level communication with the centres through their teaching committees (intermediate level), which include the advisory body to the centre’s board of management for issues that affect teaching.

Through these committees, spaces for reflection and dialogue have been created to define what it means to be good professionals in their specific field (professional identity). In addition, degree curricula have been mapped out to identify any inconsistencies between the expected professional identity and the curricula offered. Through this work, the learning outcomes of each degree have been redefined, as well as their learning model, based on deep reflection on how professors teach and how students learn in each discipline.

In conclusion, Universitas values the involvement of actors at different institutional levels as an effective driving force to achieve a sustainable curricular transformation in which the University learns and transforms itself through reflection.

ABSTRACT. The objective of this symposium is to underline the importance of research in teaching as a driving force to foster student self-regulation and help teachers to guide them toward a deep approach to learning. The interest in this proposal focuses on understanding the different pathways through which disciplinary research is promoted and carried out. Among the options for engaging with disciplinary research, two are developed. On one hand, there is what is known as Scholarly, which involves basing teaching in the discipline on existing research. And on the other hand, there is Scholarship, which additionally entails considering one's own teaching as a focus of research.

ABSTRACT. This symposium explores the concept of educational leadership of, for, with, and through academic development, engaging authors from an ongoing special issue of IJAD in a collective conversation on how institutions can enable and support educational leadership. The session brings together diverse perspectives on leadership in higher education, addressing challenges that arise during organizational change, the negotiation of leadership across formal and informal roles, and the role of professional development programs in fostering educational leadership. Contributions also examine what motivates faculty to engage in informal pedagogical leadership and how academic development units can act as catalysts for leadership practices. Drawing on insights from an ongoing review study that conceptualizes discourses of educational leadership in academic development literature, the symposium aims to provide participants with both theoretical and practical lenses for understanding leadership as a distributed and relational practice. By emphasizing complementarity among the presentations, the session seeks to inspire academic developers and institutional leaders to imagine new strategies for advancing educational leadership in their contexts.

ABSTRACT. This session aims to provide support to individuals and groups who are in the early stages of creating a network of practitioners in Educational Development (ED) in countries where no network organisation exists yet. The session will start by sharing examples from several relatively new ICED networks to encourage learning from good practice as well as ways that did not lead to expected outcomes and to synergise to foster cross-organisational conversations and collaboration. We introduce it as a follow up of a similar session at previous ICED conference, which was highly appreciated by its participants. In this symposium we will strive to create environment conductive for informal learning that supports inclusivity, exchange of various perspectives, sharing of impactful initiatives but also revealing challenges in the process of ED network creation. The session is planned to be offered in a hybrid format to allow the colleagues not attending the conference in person to join and engage. It is a part of the project led by the ICED Council. If possible, all proposers would like to act as co-facilitators.

ABSTRACT. Collaboration between schools and teacher education institutions is essential for developing relevant and research-informed teacher education. However, such collaboration does not emerge automatically. It is shaped by leadership, institutional practices, and professional expectations. This paper, which is part of an ongoing doctoral project, explores how leadership and institutional practices influence collaboration and developing work in teacher education, with particular attention to the organization and leadership of hybrid teacher educators - educators who work both in schools and in teacher education. The study is situated within the field of educational leadership and draws on theories of leadership as practice, institutional practices, and professional identity to examine how boundary-crossing roles are shaped, supported and negotiated. Empirically, the study is designed as a qualitative case study including observations and interviews with hybrid teacher educators, coordinators, a partnership project leader, and program leaders. Preliminary findings show that leadership unfolds in tensions between governance requirements and local organizational practices. Relational, negotiation-based leadership and teacher agency are crucial, while weak institutional anchoring and economic uncertainty pose challenges to long term sustainability. This study contributes to the knowledge base on educational leadership in school–university partnerships and discusses implications for organizing sustainable collaboration and professional development.

ABSTRACT. This paper reports on a small-scale qualitative research study exploring the research question: How do Academic Developers sustain themselves and thrive in Higher Education? The study undertook qualitative interviews with nine participants who worked as Academic Developers in Scotland. These were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Reflexive TA) and three themes were explored; ambiguities in Academic Development work, challenges, and strategies that help Academic Developers to thrive in this work. This paper offers strategies for individual academic developers to consider for their own wellbeing. However, it situates these strategies as individualized adaptations in response to the pressures of neoliberal university policies. It is aligned to conference sub-theme 2, questioning who is best placed to support the wellbeing of academic developers, themselves, their institutions or professional bodies and networks.

ABSTRACT. This doctoral study examines the recruitment and development of Professors of Practice (Practitioner Faculty) in Japanese higher education and aims to construct a multilayered Academic Development model. In Japan, the demand for faculty who bring substantial professional expertise has grown rapidly, especially with the expansion of new professional universities, yet systematic frameworks for their development remain limited. Using Sutherland’s (2018) Holistic Academic Development framework, the study addresses four interconnected questions. RQ1 (Macro) analyzes how Professors of Practice have been positioned within national higher education policies. RQ2 (Meso) investigates organizational conditions that enable universities to recruit and retain them sustainably. RQ3 (Micro) explores work-related challenges and capability development processes across career stages, comparing competencies with traditional academics. RQ4 (Academic Development) designs and evaluates holistic faculty development programs that integrate professional experience, research capability, and educational practice. This multilayered approach contributes to understanding faculty roles that combine academic and professional expertise. It also positions Professors of Practice as an emerging research area in higher education studies. Through the Doctoral Colloquium, the study seeks constructive feedback on its theoretical grounding and methodological design to further refine the proposed model.

ABSTRACT. Academic developers are often responsible for establishing, supporting, or sustaining various faculty communities of practice (CoPs). While CoPs have been shown to foster faculty learning and institutional transformation, they can also flounder and fail to thrive. So, what are the key differences in structure and characteristics that impact the success of CoPs? Based on practitioner and research experience developing 16 CoPs across the United States, I offer insights on effective practices for building and sustaining effective CoPs. The audience will takeaway specific strategies for finding balance in CoP membership and practices.

ABSTRACT. Andy Hargreaves once wrote “Good teachers are not just well-oiled machines. They are emotional, passionate beings who connect with their students and fill their work and their classes with pleasure, creativity, challenge and joy.” Unfortunately, many of us work in university environments in which power dynamics can treat emotion and care as trivial. Bringing emotion into teaching and faculty development remains, in a sense, subversive. Over the course of the last three decades as a researcher and faculty developer, I have sought to understand the emotions of teaching and learning relationships. This led me to develop and empirically validate a three-dimensional model of the emotional geographies of teaching and learning in terms of warmth, trust, and respect for each other. Over the last few years, my colleagues and I have been working on applying this model to our faculty development work. In this talk, I will share our insights.

ABSTRACT. This talk explores dialoguing as a mode of reflecting on the academic self through a conversation between two scholars of education—one Swiss and mid-career, the other Spanish and nearing retirement. Both have navigated roles as researchers, lecturers, and academic leaders, and both deal with the accelerating transformations in higher education. Their dialogue becomes a space for examining how they interpret these changes, envision the future of their institutions, and negotiate their own professional relevance. Grounded in a biographical approach to professional learning, dialogue is conceived as a medium through which individual experiences are explicated, negotiated, and framed as an agency in institutional contexts. In higher education, which is often highly formalized yet unevenly supportive of reflective practice, the capacity to articulate one’s professional narrative fosters multilayered reflexivity as part of professionalization. Professional learning thus emerges not only from policy structures but also from personal sense-making and bottom-up processes shaped by context and relational engagement. Drawing on the concept of meta-reflexivity (Cramer et al., 2023), the talk also includes a reflection on the method of dialoguing through the cultivation of multi-perspectivity. Meta-reflexivity is understood as a second-order reflection on how perspectives are constructed. Resonance theory (Rosa, 2000) further illuminates the emotional and relational dimensions of developing professionally, emphasizing the human need for responsive, meaningful connection. Attendants will be invited to join this conversation and engage in self-reflection about their agency of institutional and societal contexts.

ABSTRACT. Questions about whether Academic Development (AD) constitutes a profession, a field, or a discipline continue to persist, even after more than five decades of its establishment. These debates directly impact upon the agency of academic developers to facilitate change and strategically influence learning, teaching, and institutional practices. As a field, much of academic developers’ expertise in how knowledge is constructed, shared, and applied in interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts remains tacit. For new or transitioning academic developers, this can lead to challenges in understanding what it truly means to think, know, and act as an academic developer. As academic development grows globally and takes on increasing institutional significance, the need to articulate the epistemic foundations that shape knowledge development and professional practice of the field is more urgent than ever.

This collaborative session explores whether the Decoding the Disciplines (DtD) framework might serve as a productive lens for surfacing the implicit cognitive and practical dimensions of academic development work. Traditionally used to identify bottlenecks in student learning, DtD may help us interrogate how knowledge in academic development is constructed, shared and applied. Could this exploration support academic developers in becoming stewards of the field? We see our work contributing to ongoing questions about whether academic development is a profession or a discipline. Additionally, in this collaborative space we will examine how identifying bottlenecks might empower us with agency and knowledge to reimagine academic development and respond to these longstanding debates.

ABSTRACT. From the need to address attainment gaps and foster inclusive learning environments, to calls to support wellbeing and prepare students for an increasingly uncertain future, Higher Education is currently facing a number of complex challenges. Against this backdrop we propose two inter-related approaches to enhancing student agency in learning. Patterns beyond labels and From wellbeing to welldoing have emerged from a desire to practically equip teaching staff to bridge the gap between institutional policy and classroom practice, and are intended to be universal, highly- adaptable approaches to facilitating learner agency. Through collaborative interaction with the underpinning conceptual basis and practical resources, this session will invite participants to contribute to developing and refining these approaches as part of a wider dialogue about the role of academic developers in supporting student learning agency. By positioning agency as central to learning, we will consider how meaningful approaches to motivation, self-regulation, and engagement can reduce barriers and enable sustainable success across Higher Education. This collaborative space will enable us to draw on the rich and varied experiences of participants working across the sector and identify opportunities for further exploration and collaboration in this important area of work.

ABSTRACT. In 2022, a commission of 16 U.S. higher education leaders issued The equity/excellence imperative: A 2030 blueprint for undergraduate education at research universities (Snyder et al.). The widely utilized report calls for 11 “provocations” to advance high-quality and equitable tertiary education. Examples include: "How will we ensure that our students—all of them, without exception—are educated using evidence-informed pedagogies in intentionally inclusive and empathy-based environments?" and "How can we urgently support belonging and wellness in the university community?"

Similarly, higher education systems around the world are increasingly being called to better address equity and access as necessary–and complementary–to tertiary education. How can we stitch together our efforts across national borders and systems?

The ambition for this collaborative space is to generate a research agenda around international perspectives on the “equity-excellence imperative,” defined as “a belief that excellence and equity are inextricably entwined, such that excellence without equity (privilege reproducing privilege) is not true excellence, and equity (mere access) without excellence is unfulfilled promise” (Snyder et al., 2022, p. 3). The session will help shape a forthcoming edited volume from Routledge on the topic. It also offers an important opportunity to understand international approaches to equity and access, and to develop common change efforts across borders and systems. Presenters join from three national contexts and four campuses.

ABSTRACT. Universities face increasingly diverse student groups, including a growing number of students with disabilities. This creates challenges for teachers who must provide inclusive learning environments while managing already time-pressured schedules. At Uppsala University, we are implementing a project aimed at strengthening teachers’ competence to meet these challenges. This project stretches over three years, starting autumn 2025. The purpose is to shift focus from individual accommodations to adaptable teaching practices that benefit all students, reduce teacher stress, and promote sustainability in academic work. Participants in this collaborative space will engage in dialogue and practical idea exchange, contributing to a community of practice that advances equity and quality in higher education.

ABSTRACT. As universities undergo significant change, upheaval and disruption, the role of academic development in guiding teaching and learning becomes a critical, and potentially stabilising, force. However, the work of academic developers themselves is increasingly threatened, including through funding cuts and the adoption of technological tools such as genAI that may purport to replace academic development activities. Within this turbulent environment, assessing and responding to risk can be challenging. In this workshop we invite participants to engage with the methodology of speculative social science fictions to explore possibilities for the future of academic development. During the workshop, participants will examine existing fictions and consider issues within their recent practice and that of their peers to draft their own fictional scenarios within small groups. The workshop will provide a safe space to creatively explore challenges, impacts and possibilities for academic development practices, processes and supports within the future university, and empower participants to utilise similar methods within their own practice.

ABSTRACT. Academic developers are increasingly called upon to act as strategic change agents, shaping teaching cultures, curriculum enhancement and organisational learning while navigating volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions. Yet much day-to-day academic development still takes the form of reactive, short-term responses to staff development needs, leaving limited room for reflective, values driven strategy work. This workshop introduces photo~currere~voice, a creative, posthuman, arts based methodology (author, 2024) that combines autobiographical currere (Pinar, 1975) with participatory visual inquiry (Wang and Burris, 1997) as a way for academic developers to (re)examine and reimagine their strategic agency. Working with their own images, and recognising the entangled roles of people, places, policies and material artefacts, participants will trace past, present and possible futures of their work and identify micropolitical “becoming minor” moves within existing institutional structures. The session is highly interactive and grounded in research with academic developers engaged in decolonial curriculum work. It will provide a flexible 4 step process and adaptable tools that participants can take back to their own centres or institutions for use in team retreats, strategic planning and leadership development. In line with Subtheme 2, the workshop foregrounds agency, strategy and organisational transformation, supporting participants to cultivate agile, resilient and values aligned academic development practices.

ABSTRACT. Higher education institutions face increasing demands for innovation, quality assurance, and strategic agility. Traditional, ad hoc support models often fail to meet these challenges on scale. This workshop explores how service models, commonly associated with business logics, can be reclaimed as value-driven frameworks for educational development. Drawing on our institution’s recent restructuring of Teaching and Learning Services, we present a layered model combining broad-access offerings with specialized, tailored services. Participants will critically examine tensions around resource allocation, equity, and the role of educational developers, using interactive activities and case-based discussions. Through practical examples and collaborative exercises, attendees will identify strategies to design coherent, scalable support systems without eroding academic values. The session equips participants with conceptual clarity and actionable tools to strengthen educational development capacity in their own contexts.

ABSTRACT. This hands-on workshop guides participants through designing Interactive Oral Assessments (IOAs)—scenario-based conversations that assess students' capacity to articulate, defend, and extend disciplinary knowledge in real time. IOAs have increased in popularity because of the emergence of generative AI. Drawing on established frameworks (Logan-Fleming & Sotiriadou, 2020; Ward et al., 2024), participants will develop practical IOA components ready for implementation. The workshop follows the IOA design process: defining characteristics that distinguish IOAs from traditional oral exams, identifying authentic professional conversations specific to participants' disciplines, developing assessment scenarios aligned to learning outcomes, creating rubrics and conversation prompts, and planning for student preparation and teaching team calibration. Through structured activities and peer collaboration, participants will draft IOA elements including scenarios, rubric criteria, and implementation strategies. The session will present a sample workshop for supporting IOAs, and then participants will discuss how this work might be adapted to their own contexts. Critical considerations addressed include equity for multilingual learners, workload management, operational logistics, and marker/grading consistency. Participants will leave with draft IOA materials, practical tools, and connections to ongoing community support. Designed for academic developers, educational designers, and educators seeking to implement oral assessment. No prior IOA experience required. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring learning outcomes from their teaching or from educators they support.

ABSTRACT. This session provides participants with strategies to address course bottlenecks by incorporating artwork and art museums into teaching across disciplines. Led by an academic developer and an art museum curator of learning & engagement who have worked together for more than five years, we will explore how we support university teachers to include art-based strategies in classes to help students build and reinforce essential skills, such as observation, communication, and problem solving. Session leaders will guide participants through several museum-based activities. We will explore evidence for the effectiveness of the exercises drawing from a collaboration with higher ed instructors across a wide range of fields (from Economics to Audiology) and contextualized by higher education literature. Though the activities will be rooted in art and focused on the art museum context, they have broad applicability. The workshop leaders will share how participants can apply the principles discussed to their unique situations in classrooms or as academic developers, whether or not they have an art museum or other type of museum at their institution.

ABSTRACT. We propose a workshop on the use of collaborative hospitality, both in our day-to-day work (courses and consultations) as academic developers and as agents for change in university cultures (Stensaker, 2018). By exploring the research base of collaborative hospitality in interdisciplinary education and how we can use this type of hospitality for organizational change, the workshop speaks to both conference sub themes 1 and 2. The workshop’s purpose is to provide opportunities for participants to consider how the concept of hospitable collaboration informs their academic development work, and how they might use it (Sutphen et al., 2024) with colleagues, administrators, leaders, and students for institutional change. The workshop has three parts, starting inductively with an activity on ‘statements’ about collaboration and hospitality in higher education. The activity is designed to spark dialogue and reflection among participants on university cultures, collaboration, and the purposes of academic development. In part two, we draw on our research project Academic Hospitality in Interdisciplinary Education (Norwegian Research Council: 326088) as well as discourses on academic hospitality (Imperiale et al., 2021; Phipps & Barnett, 2007) and collaboration (Thomson et al., 2009) to demonstrate the potential of collaboration and reciprocal hospitality in universities. In the third part of the workshop, we engage in a plenary discussion about how participants may already enact some forms of academic hospitality (Imperiale et al., 2021; Phipps & Barnett, 2007). We then turn to the future and ask participants how they might use collaborative hospitality for organizational transformation in their respective universities.

ABSTRACT. This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to engage with the outcomes of a longitudinal research project that evaluated a teaching development program in a large Australian research-intensive university. The purpose of the workshop is to foster critical dialogue about meaningful and sustainable evaluation in academic development. The value of the session lies in its combination of research insights and peer exchange. Participants will leave with practical ideas for designing and implementing evaluations that go beyond compliance and accountability, towards authentic learning and institutional enhancement. By engaging with an authentic case example, the workshop aims to strengthen evaluation in academic development and inspire evidence-informed approaches that recognise the nuanced, long-term nature of educational change.

ABSTRACT. This interactive workshop introduces educational developers to Challenge-Based Education (CBE) as a powerful approach to foster student agency in higher education. Agency - the capacity to act intentionally and influence one’s environment - is essential for preparing students as active, responsible learners. Challenge-Based Education (CBE) operationalizes this concept by creating learning environments where students actively define problems, make decisions, and co-create solutions. Through its structured yet flexible framework, CBE empowers students to exercise agency by taking ownership of authentic, complex challenges and engaging in collaborative inquiry and solution design. Participants will experience a fast-paced CBE-Sprint, simulating the process students undergo when tackling real-world problems in Challenge-based Education. During this CBE-sprint participants will work collaboratively on the theme of enhancing student agency in higher education. Through this hands-on activity, participants will explore how CBE principles - essential questioning, guided research, and modelling solutions - empower learners to take ownership of their learning. The workshop combines practice with reflection: participants will explore ideas on how to enhance student agency and reflect on CBE-integration in their contexts. Alongside they will leave with a practical toolkit for running CBE-Sprints at their institutions.

ABSTRACT. This workshop builds on findings from the international project CiVR – Collegial InterVision Research, conducted across three universities in three countries. The project explored how structured peer-dialogue formats—such as intervision, peer observation, and practice demonstrations—support critical reflection and mutual learning in higher education development programmes. Interviews with participants highlight the value of structured dialogue for analysing teaching cases, generating fresh perspectives, and fostering interdisciplinary exchange. They also underscore the importance of communicative clarity and conceptual translation when collaborating across national and institutional contexts. The workshop invites conference participants to actively explore and practice collegial intervision and to share experiences with dialogic formats in higher education. Collegial intervision is a structured peer-based dialogue based on counselling where faculty developers, lecturers or supervisors collaboratively reflect on challenging teaching situations and enhance collective learning. To create an open environment for diverse viewpoints and establish common ground, a Deep Democracy–inspired dialogue serves as an entry point for shared reflection, giving all participants a voice and eliciting their experiences with peer-based dialogue. Participants will engage in a facilitated dialogue and collaboratively develop ideas for future applications, including how structured formats like intervision and adapted coaching approaches can enhance reflective practice in higher education. The workshop offers a practical, co-creative experience and generates concrete impulses for strengthening peer-based critical reflection. It supports the collaborative development of approaches that can enrich faculty development and higher education programmes. It addresses faculty developers, programme leaders, lecturers, supervisors and all persons interested in peer-based dialogues.

ABSTRACT. This poster presents the German-English Network for Instruction and Academic Learning (GENIAL), an emerging transnational network of 25+ educational developers who meet virtually to bridge German-speaking and Anglophone educational development communities. Founded in 2024, our network demonstrates how bilingual professional networks amplify epistemic and professional agency—our capacity to shape knowledge production and influence practices across borders. Through comparative discourse analysis, collaborative exploration of scholarship, and profession-specific language development, members actively shape scholarship by connecting communities that rarely interact.

GENIAL has fostered its members’ professional agency by increasing proficiency in profession-specific German, gaining familiarity with the German-language discourse, and extending personal connections and outreach within and between German-speaking and anglophone countries. The translanguaging experience also supports the cultivation of trust and belonging. The network also improved epistemic agency as a space for exploration across discourses and co-constructing cross-system knowledge.

Aligning with Sub-theme 1, “Agency and Knowledge: Advancing Epistemologies, Innovation and Scholarship,” this poster shares our approach, challenges, and outcomes to spark conversation about leveraging linguistic diversity as a resource for professional agency. We particularly welcome dialogue with colleagues interested in transnational, cross-system networks. How might intentional multilingual networks promote agency and transform academic development in your context?

ABSTRACT. This paper examines how the ECTN Eurolecturer Academy (ELA) builds and sustains transnational communities of practice that function as strategic drivers of academic development in higher education. Operating within the European Chemistry Thematic Network, ELA connects chemistry lecturers and educational developers (Brouwer et al., 2022). Drawing on document analysis of ELA newsletters (2024–2025) and web materials, the study explores how international collaboration supports institutional transformation and enhances the agency of academic staff engaged in teaching enhancement. The analysis is informed by theories of transnational academic development, communities of practice, and organisational learning. These frameworks help explain how ELA facilitates collective knowledge building, cross-institutional reflection, and double-loop learning that contribute to sustainable improvements in STEM teaching and learning. ELA’s activities—including international webinar series and immersive summer schools held in Aveiro (2023) and Palermo (2024)—provide opportunities for educators from Europe and other continents to exchange practices, design courses collaboratively, and integrate active learning and innovative assessment approaches. Graduates of the summer schools become CPD Ambassadors who disseminate new practices within their home institutions, creating cascading networks of local and international impact. The findings show that ELA strengthens both individual and institutional capacity, aligns local initiatives with broader European priorities. Brouwer, N., Maciejowska, I., McDonnell, C., Niemelä, M. E., Pirok, B. W. J., Grecea, Ş., Femoni, C., Ortiz-Bustos, J., Byers, W., & Wasser, I. (2022). Creating a common ground for professional development of university chemistry (STEM) lecturers in Europe. Education Policy, Management and Quality, 14(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.48127/spvk-epmq/22.14.45

ABSTRACT. In Portugal, academic career pathways have traditionally prioritised research over teaching, limiting the recognition of pedagogical development and constraining sustained investment in teaching quality and student learning. This imbalance has contributed to weak incentives for academic engagement with teaching enhancement and to ongoing challenges in staff development. Although professional frameworks for teaching recognition have expanded across parts of the European Higher Education Area, adoption remains uneven, and Portugal has until recently lacked a nationally articulated framework for teaching competence. A significant transformation is now underway, catalysed by unprecedented national investment in 2024 through the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. This investment has led most Portuguese higher education institutions to organise into seven interinstitutional consortia focused on teaching excellence, alongside the establishment of the National Council for Innovation in Higher Education (CNIPES). Together, these developments create a unique opportunity for systemic change and for advancing parity of esteem between teaching and research. Within this context, the EPIC consortium, comprising six university and polytechnic institutions, is developing a shared framework for teaching competence applicable across both subsystems. The framework has been developed through an interinstitutional benchmarking and consensus-building process and is informed by international reference models while adapted to national contexts. Conceptually, it is organised around expanding spheres of impact, framing teaching development as a progressive widening of influence from classroom practice to broader institutional engagement. This poster presents the framework’s development process and early outcomes, illustrating how coordinated collaboration can strengthen teaching recognition and support cultural change in higher education.

ABSTRACT. How can academic developers, the Head of Study and teachers collaborate and support the didactic development of a new interdisciplinary, international and practice-integrated MSc-programme, Biosolutions, through the process of establishing a Faculty Learning Community? What change strategies should be taken into consideration? In this poster, we describe and debate how a Faculty Learning Community has been initiated through an iterative, circular process where teaching principles have been formulated and revised. This has been carried out through ongoing experiences from the teaching shared with colleagues in structured formats during common meetings every second month and through working in trios with peer mentoring as a part of problem sharing and problem solving. The teaching principles form the basis for the teachers' reflections on creating coherence between learning activities, learning objectives and assessment in addition to the curricular content of the individual courses in the programme – and how elements such as international and different disciplinary backgrounds along with practice integration play a role in the students' learning. We look at the challenges and opportunities applying a model of strategies developed for academic and educational development. In particular, we are interested in how we can address commitment over compliance and navigate the complexity of academic development.

ABSTRACT. The Shannon Consortium, comprised of three higher education institutions, was established in 2007 to create a centre of pedagogical excellence in higher education across the mid-west region in Ireland. To this end, the three partners collaborated in the development of strategic initiatives to enhance teaching and learning, namely a regional award system, peer observation network and regional practice-sharing ‘conversations’. Almost two decades later, this regional collaboration is an example of how collaboration across institutional boundaries can positively impact processes, cultures, teachers and students. This paper will share the key actions and learnings in progressing academic development as a collaborative effort resulting in sustainable approaches to the enhancement of learning and teaching. To illustrate this collaboration in practice, the Regional Teaching Excellence Award (RTEA) will be introduced, including sharing findings and insights from a recent review and revision of the process adopted

ABSTRACT. Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice that remains inaccessible to most undergraduates. While extracurricular research opportunities exist, curriculum-embedded research experiences provide a scalable, equitable means to engage all students in authentic inquiry. Despite documented benefits, significant barriers like time constraints, workload concerns, and costs hinder widespread adoption of curricular research experiences. Consequently, integration of undergraduate research into curricula has relied on isolated faculty champions, resulting in fragmented opportunities that fail to reach all students. To influence systemic change and advance institutional priorities around undergraduate research, this project positions an academic developer and a faculty member as strategic change agents co-leading curricular transformation. This collaborative leadership model develops a practical framework for systematically integrating research experiences within departmental curricula. By embedding research as a core curricular component, this initiative normalizes curricular undergraduate research and creates sustainable pathways for student engagement. The project encompasses four interconnected strategies that shape teaching culture and build institutional capacity in teaching: establishing a scalable framework to systematically integrate research experiences within a program across academic units; supporting faculty in designing and implementing course-based research opportunities; creating a pedagogy course that builds teaching assistants’ capacity for research mentorship; and developing an open resource repository that captures organizational learning and guides future implementation. Through communities of practice, this work creates institutional capacity that responds to evolving educational needs. This partnership exemplifies how academic developers can move beyond their support roles and function as strategic leaders driving policy-aligned curricular enhancement at an institutional level.

ABSTRACT. Educational development is an extended academic field worldwide with a diverse knowledge base to reflect the multi-disciplinarity of academic developers. Many developers want to share their contributions in educational development and research, but find the process of writing and publishing unclear. In this session we will create a collaborative space in which we can share experiences on this process with ICED’s peer-reviewed International Journal for Academic Development. The editors will answer your questions about writing, researching, reviewing, and publishing in the field of academic development. The editors will focus in particular on how to make your work appropriate for and appealing to an international audience.

ABSTRACT. Student trust in university teachers plays a critical role in learning, motivation, and persistence. Using existing scholarship on instructor perspectives of trust (Felten et al., 2023), our team explored the student perspective of the value of the following four interrelated dimensions of trust: Cognition (trust grounded in perceived knowledge and teaching competence), Affect (trust based on interpersonal care and concern), Values (trust derived from perceived integrity and principled behavior), and Identity (trust connected to shared and/or respected identity characteristics). Existing research demonstrates how these dimensions function across diverse contexts, influencing student experiences and instructional relationships (Persson et al., 2023; Sutherland et al., 2024; Glessmer et al., 2025; Lee & Ragupathi, 2025; Pleschová et al., 2025; Sutherland-Harris et al., 2025). This Collaborative Space invites participants from a wide range of roles in diverse cultural, linguistic, and institutional settings to help translate, contextualize, and adapt the trust moves model and methodological approach. Attendees will review the model, discuss contextual variables affecting trust, and explore opportunities to investigate trust in their own classrooms and educational development work. Our goal is to build further global partnerships, identify areas that may require adaptation, and co-develop next steps for comparative and cross-cultural research and practice on teacher-student trust relationships. This session advances the conference theme of Agency and Knowledge. By refining and collaboratively adapting a research-based model of student trust, our work strengthens the epistemic agency of academic developers and teachers as they design relational, inclusive, and contextually responsive learning environments

ABSTRACT. Artificial intelligence is transforming higher education, challenging traditional models of teaching, learning, and assessment. Universities must move beyond technical adoption toward embedding AI literacy as a transversal competence, encompassing ethical reasoning, judgment, and creative collaboration. This collaborative space invites participants to explore design-based strategies for integrating AI literacy into curricula and institutional practices. Drawing on a comparative initiative between two universities within the EUGLOH alliance, we will share emerging approaches and invite dialogue on how alliances can accelerate innovation where institutional change is slow. Participants will engage in structured discussion to identify shared challenges, map opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration, and co-create ideas for future research and practice. The session aligns with ICED themes by addressing innovative formats to share knowledge, interdisciplinary partnerships to promote epistemic agency, and critical examination of AI disruptions on curriculum and learning.

ABSTRACT. Despite the growing popularity of short international teaching interventions such as teaching weeks, empirical research on their design, outcomes, and educational value remains limited. Most internationalisation research still focuses on student mobility, with far fewer studies exploring faculty-led, intensive teaching formats (Lee et al., 2022). This ICED collaborative space will present initial reflections on the Africa International Teaching Week project as a national, multi-institutional, cross-continental initiative advancing teaching excellence, academic staff development, and internationalisation aligned with national and institutional frameworks. Presenters will reflect on how four South African universities collaboratively designed and implemented the project to support lecturers in establishing international collaborations, strengthening teaching cultures, and building academic development ecosystems responsive to systemic priorities. Key reflections include strategies to align with national frameworks, build institutional capacity, promote exposure to global perspectives, and develop agile academic development units capable of navigating disruptions in the global education space. The Africa International Teaching Week initiative serves as an enabler for internationalisation through institutional mandates and academic development policies. The project strengthens collaborative teaching cultures and academic development capacity through lessons learnt in cross-institutional, intercontinental collaboration and professional development for staff involved in hosting and participating in international teaching activities. Presenters will demonstrate how the project creates equitable opportunities for university teachers to engage in internationalised teaching, SoTL research, and collaborative innovation. Sharing data-driven feedback, evaluation mechanisms, and sustainability planning will enable peer engagement and critical conversations, contributing to recommendations for institutionalising Africa International Teaching Weeks as a national staff enhancement mechanism.

ABSTRACT. Universities are seeking sustainable ways to build capacity for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), strengthen educator agency, and cultivate cultures of evidence-based teaching. Yet approaches to supporting SoTL vary widely, particularly in relation to how academic development structures enable or constrain educators’ ability to engage meaningfully in inquiry and leadership around learning and teaching. This Collaborative Space session invites participants to explore models, challenges, and emerging practices for fostering SoTL engagement across diverse institutional contexts.

Using the rapidly scaled SoTL support program at University X as an example, this session will facilitate dialogue about the principles, structures, and conditions that support educator agency, such as mentoring, recognition frameworks, peer networks, and dissemination pathways. Participants will share their own approaches, identify common needs, and generate strategies for addressing challenges within their respective contexts.

The Collaborative Space aims to create a community of shared learning, inviting contributions from academic developers, education focussed academics, educational leaders, and researchers interested in strengthening SoTL capability building and advancing collective understanding of how institutions can enable agency in teaching and learning.

ABSTRACT. Abstract. Across higher education, there is growing recognition that sustainable pedagogical development depends on cultivating collegial environments where teachers can engage in shared reflection, mutual feedback, and the exchange of pedagogical knowledge. This collaborative space invites contributions to an emerging conversation about how structured collective approaches can be designed and embedded in faculty development to strengthen teacher cultures and support academic staff – particularly those who experience pedagogical work as isolated or insufficiently supported. The session addresses a core challenge in academic development: how to move beyond individualized models of pedagogical training toward collaborative formats that foster trust, encourage openness about teaching, and promote a sense of belonging to a wider pedagogical community. Drawing on empirical insights from ongoing collegial initiatives, the session highlights key design considerations, including the selection and framing of pedagogical topics, the balance between formal and informal structures, participants’ capacities for peer feedback, and the management of group dynamics. Participants are invited to engage critically with these issues, relate them to their own institutional contexts, and explore how collegial approaches can be integrated into faculty development programs and departmental practices. By leveraging the interactive potential of ICED’s collaborative space format, the session aims to advance conceptual understandings of collegiality in academic development, spark new cross-institutional dialogues, and seed future research and development collaborations focused on creating sustainable collegial environments for pedagogical growth.

ABSTRACT. This workshop targets academic developers (ADs) concerned with how higher education can respond to the rapid advance of AI. However, the workshop is relevant for academic teachers and leaders as well. Conceptually, the workshop draws on Bandura’s notion of agency and task-specific self-efficacy, and on Emirbayer and Mische’s temporal–relational understanding of agency, supplemented by the distinction between accountability and responsibility in professional work. As a springboard for shared inquiry and ideation, we present findings from a multi-institutional and mixed methods study of educational leaders’ approaches to and agency amid AI in four universities in a Norwegian context. In the workshop, participants are guided through structured group activities designed for co-learning and co-creation of ideas for practices that can strengthen educational leaders’ agency amid AI. The intended purpose and value for participants are: 1) research-informed insights into how agency in the face of AI can be supported in higher education, with particular attention to the role of educational leaders and academic developers; and 2) concrete, adaptable ideas for developmental activities and partnerships that can be transferred to participants’ own institutions

ABSTRACT. Curriculum mapping is defined as “the process of associating course outcomes with program-level learning outcomes and aligning teaching and learning strategies and assessment methods for courses so the relationships between the components of the program can be identified” (Author A, 2019, p. 44). As part of our institutional mandate to conduct cyclical reviews of course-based program curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in partnership with new program development initiatives that are required to communicate central aspects of a program’s curriculum, our teaching and learning centre has developed a free, open-access curriculum mapping tool that simplifies the mapping process and produces customizable program reports from the aggregate data entered. This workshop will a) define curriculum mapping; b) explain its value for curriculum design and review processes; c) provide a demonstration of our mapping tool’s functionalities and reports; and d) explore the benefits of this open-access tool for participants’ own educational and curricular development projects.

ABSTRACT. This interactive workshop session introduces academic developers to a proven “Feedback Literacy” workshop designed to strengthen instructors’ capacity to provide feedback that fosters learning, trust, and student agency. Participants will experience condensed versions of core workshop activities, including vignette-based discussions and the development of personalized feedback plans, to surface assumptions about feedback, examine relational dynamics, and explore inclusive strategies that support diverse learners. Through these hands-on activities, attendees will deepen their understanding of feedback as a relational and contextual practice rather than a purely technical skill. The session highlights approaches for helping instructors navigate the emotional labor of feedback, build trust with students, and design processes that promote student ownership of learning. A central focus of the session is transferability, and participants will receive facilitation insights, adaptable materials, and design rationales that enable them to tailor the workshop to their own institutional contexts. We will discuss strategies for customizing vignettes and activities, aligning the workshop with local teaching cultures, and creating communities of practice that sustain growth in feedback literacy over time. By the end of the session, academic developers will leave with a ready-to-adapt model for offering meaningful feedback literacy programming on their campuses, along with practical tools, facilitation guidance, and a clear sense of how to integrate this work into broader academic development initiatives.

ABSTRACT. The transition into university life presents first-year students with complex academic, social, and emotional challenges that traditional transition programs often struggle to address fully. While such curricula commonly support study skills and awareness of institutional resources, they seldom offer safe spaces to practice navigating socially nuanced situations or to experience the real-life consequences of everyday decisions. This workshop introduces Beyond Books, an innovative game of life board game developed through collaboration between Universities in the USA and Northen Europe. Designed to surface the hidden and alternative curriculum of higher education, the game enables students to explore academic pressures, interpersonal dynamics, and the emotional demands of their first year in an engaging, interactive, and collaborative format.

Participants will experience the prototype gameplay, examine its theoretical foundations in game-based learning and social-emotional development, and reflect on preliminary findings from testing with over 100 students. The session will also include guided discussion on how such a tool can be adapted to local institutional contexts to foster empathy, communication skills, self-advocacy, and decision-making among new undergraduates. This workshop offers academic developers, faculty, and professional staff a practical and creative strategy for supporting students’ holistic transition into university life.

ABSTRACT. Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a critical competency for academic success and lifelong learning, yet it does not develop automatically. Students need structured opportunities to acquire and practice SRL skills, which requires intentional curriculum design. We view the development of SRL as a shared responsibility among students, teachers, programme coordinators, and student counsellors.

This workshop introduces a collaborative approach for working with programme teams to embed SRL into curricula in a systematic and sustainable way. Participants will explore two practical resources:

1) A workshop format designed to engage programme teams in identifying opportunities for SRL integration.

2) A spectrum of teaching methods illustrating how teacher teams can foster SRL development across courses.

The session will be interactive, combining a concise introduction on our vision of SRL with practical tools and hands-on activities. Participants will reflect on their own contexts and take actionable strategies home to support SRL at programme level.

ABSTRACT. . Higher education students report insufficient opportunities to develop transversal skills during their programs, a perspective that aligns with the concerns of educators, industry, and accreditation bodies. This hands-on workshop provides academic developers with an evidence-informed approach for designing micro-experiential learning activities that develop students’ professional skills. Developed through a multi-year research project, the [ANONIMISED] framework comprises three elements: knowing (strategies and models that operationalise a skill), experiencing (opportunities to practise the skill and encounter authentic challenges), and learning by experience (guided reflection that supports transfer). Workshop participants will engage in a specific example of the implementation of the framework that focuses on behaviours that support groups to develop psychological safety, a key dimension of constructive teamwork. The activity recreates common collaboration challenges and introduces evidence-based behaviours, specifically inquiry and active listening, that strengthen team climates. In addition to open-access [ANONIMISED] activity guides, academic developers will find the framework a useful conceptual tool when discussing the development of professional skills with instructors and how principles from learning-science principles (low-stakes experimentation, cognitive load reduction, rapid feedback, structured reflection) can support robust and transferable learning.

ABSTRACT. Teaching competence development for university faculty is increasingly diverse, with numerous opportunities available to enhance their teaching practice. Formal pedagogical training enables development and implementation of teaching that addresses students’ needs and current challenges of higher education. Pedagogical training affects, for example, teachers’ and educational developers’ competencies, conceptual understanding and approach, and well-being. Therefore, it is important to organize formal pedagogical training in such way that it is accessible and responsive to the needs of as many educators in higher education as possible. In this workshop, the participants will engage in examining different forms of formal pedagogical training and work together to build a vision of how pedagogical training should be provided in the future. After the workshop, the participants will have become familiar with a concrete example of how flexible higher education pedagogical training is arranged, evaluated the strengths of different implementation forms of formal pedagogical training, and reflected on the future of university pedagogical training in a structured way. Participants will also gain hands-on experience with the workshop method, which they can use as a foresight tool in pedagogical development actions within their discipline and own context.

ABSTRACT. This interactive session will share insights into how a Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) in a small teaching-focused undergraduate university developed a Students as Teaching and Learning Partners (SaTLP) initiative that gave students opportunities to participate in two Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs), one being focused on the topic of reimagining grading, the other, on open educational practices. By encouraging student voice and co-designing a space where educational developers, faculty, and students were able to challenge assumptions about traditional roles and power dynamics, we were rewarded with unexpected learning opportunities and meaningful conversations. Through interactive activities, participants in this workshop will identify, question, imagine, and reflect on opportunities to partner with students and be inspired by insights gained from participants and presenters through these initiatives.

ABSTRACT. Institutions increasingly invest in Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) as part of broader efforts to enhance student engagement and transform teaching practice. Yet research consistently shows that without coordinated educational development, the pedagogical potential of these spaces remains underrealized. This workshop presents Stellar Rescue, a problem-based learning (PBL) activity designed as a component of a larger institutional initiative supporting ALC adoption. Rather than introducing instructors to the room through technical orientation alone, this activity positions experiential learning as the primary mechanism for helping instructors understand how pedagogy and space interact. Participants in the workshop will engage with an adapted version of Stellar Rescue, followed by a structured debrief that examines the activity’s design, its theoretical foundations, and its role within a multi-layered approach to educational development. Through this experience, participants consider how PBL can function not only as an instructional method, but also as a versatile educational development tool for facilitating instructor learning around complex topics, including but not limited to learning space transitions. The workshop will equip participants with a transferable framework for using experiential, problem-based activities to support pedagogical change across diverse institutional contexts.

ABSTRACT. As universities revise academic integrity policies to address Generative AI (GenAI), traditional, static self-paced courses struggle to engage students or capture the nuances of AI-era ethics. This talk presents the design and evaluation of an innovative, gamified, self-paced course co-created with students to address updated university policies. Moving beyond passive "click-and-read" formats, the instructional design team curated 57 real misconduct cases across the university and collaborated with students to create an "choose-your-adventure" rescue mission where learners travel back in time to save animal characters—neutral avatars designed to mitigate bias—from past ethical lapses. The course integrates GenAI in two novel ways: using AI tools to generate immersive multimedia assets and deploying a custom chatbot trained on university policy to facilitate Socratic, scenario-based coaching. This chatbot serves as a safe, judgment-free venue for sensitive inquiries. Evaluation data—including three rounds of expert review by seven faculty and staff, four faculty focus groups (faculty n= 10), and four interviews with students (n = 4)—indicate that this approach significantly enhances learner agency. Participants praised the interactive, decision-driven format and viewed the course as an engaging supplement to traditional learning. This talk will present the development and evaluation of the course and demonstrate how partnering with students and leveraging GenAI tools can transform academic integrity training into an empowering, agency-building learning experience.

ABSTRACT. The Space Between the Notes: Designing Intentional Pauses for Reflective, Connected Learning

What happens in the pauses—between lectures, between assignments, and between the noise of the semester? This session explores these in-between moments as powerful but often overlooked elements of effective teaching. Using the metaphor of “the space between the notes,” the workshop invites faculty to adopt a slower, more intentional approach to course design and classroom interaction, grounded in research on learning, reflection, and student engagement.

Scholarship in cognitive psychology shows that deliberate pauses enhance metacognition (Schraw, 1998), support long-term retention (Roediger & Butler, 2011), and improve knowledge transfer (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Contemplative and relational pedagogies likewise demonstrate that reflective space strengthens attention, presence, and connection (Barbezat & Bush, 2014; Felten & Lambert, 2020). These findings are especially relevant as faculty navigate contemporary challenges such as student reliance on AI tools, declining confidence, and constraints on classroom time.

Through short musical prompts, guided reflection, and hands-on redesign activities, participants will experiment with ways to integrate intentional pauses into their teaching—micro-reflections, brief connection routines, and low-stakes metacognitive writing. The session emphasizes strategies that can be applied in any discipline or environment, supporting both cognitive processing and community building.

Participants will leave with fresh ideas, a supportive peer network, and a concrete plan to revise one element of their course using reflective design principles. Ultimately, the workshop reframes slowing down not as loss of instructional time but as a research-supported pathway to deeper learning and more meaningful student engagement.

ABSTRACT. Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower opens with the assertion that “all that you touch you change. All that you change changes you” (1993, p. 3). Though universities aspire to change and shape their students, it is less clear how institutions are positioned to be shaped in turn by their students. How might universities practice a stance of reciprocity or dialogue with students? How can students feel empowered by knowing that the university can change because of them? This lightning talk will highlight how a US-based campus a unit focused on curricular innovation and transformation aimed to facilitate a dialogic relationship between students and the institution by hosting an outdoor student art gallery. After positing the lack of relational reciprocal change between students and the university as an application of Freire’s (1970/2005) banking model of education at the institutional level, the talk will focus on how the outdoor student art gallery fostered student dialogue with the institution by situating: student artwork as dialogue; an outdoor gallery as students literally changing the physical landscape of the university; and, a gallery space as an ongoing commitment to institutional receptivity. The talk will also include recommendations for how other academic developers can engage student artwork to cultivate participatory, inclusive, and mutually transformative learning experiences for academic developers and students alike.