Proposal Title
Student-centred pedagogical practices to support undergraduate student mental health
Session Type
Presentation
Room
Somerville House, room 3345
Start Date
12-7-2023 1:30 PM
End Date
12-7-2023 1:50 PM
Keywords
interactive, pedagogy, learning environments, mental health
Primary Threads
Teaching and Learning Science
Abstract
The prevalence of mental illness continues to increase worldwide, and university campuses have not been immune to this trend. A recent national survey found that 43.3% of Canadian post-secondary students indicated anxiety was an “impediment to academic performance” while 30.4% indicated that depression had the same effect. More alarmingly, the same survey found that 2.9% of Canadian post-secondary students attempted suicide in the previous twelve months. At a university the size of Guelph, that translates to roughly 860 undergraduate students. The classroom is the ‘front line’ of education/student interaction and the one common element in every student’s university experience. Instructors play a vital role as both ambassadors of their institutions and as key figures accountable for the learning and growth of their students. The choices they make in their classrooms have an impact that goes beyond course content. Drawing from the University of Guelph’s mission, a guiding principle for my research is commitment “to the highest standards of pedagogy, to the education and well-being of the whole person, to meeting the needs of all learners in a purposefully diverse community”. Using an online survey and semi-structured interviews with students, I hope to determine how instructors’ pedagogical choices positively and negatively impact student mental health. Using this data, I will then design a toolbox of low-risk, easily implementable interventions and recommendations for instructors and program administrators to support student mental health within the science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) classrooms.
Elements of Engagement
My presentation will begin with providing some background information: why we need to continue to address student mental health on university campuses, why current approaches aren't working, and what other options are available to us. I am aiming to keep this part of the presentation under eight minutes.
The second part of my presentation will be interactive. I will use an online platform (e.g., Kahoot) to engage the audience. I will ask questions that have "yes"/"no" answers, such as "Do university instructors have a role to play in student mental health?" But what I really want the audience to engage with is their own experiences in the classroom. Using the online platform, I want to know if, as undergraduate students, did the participants have learning environment experiences that impacted their mental health positively or negatively? Do they think there were things their instructors could have done differently to support their mental health in the classroom? I hope that in a setting where many people are participating and answers can be anonymous, participants will be able to be honest and we can have a meaningful discussion about mental health in the classroom.
My goal is to both start a conversation about simple and practical steps that can be taken to improve the mental health of the student community, and to gain further insight into where I can dive deeper in my research from experts in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Student-centred pedagogical practices to support undergraduate student mental health
Somerville House, room 3345
The prevalence of mental illness continues to increase worldwide, and university campuses have not been immune to this trend. A recent national survey found that 43.3% of Canadian post-secondary students indicated anxiety was an “impediment to academic performance” while 30.4% indicated that depression had the same effect. More alarmingly, the same survey found that 2.9% of Canadian post-secondary students attempted suicide in the previous twelve months. At a university the size of Guelph, that translates to roughly 860 undergraduate students. The classroom is the ‘front line’ of education/student interaction and the one common element in every student’s university experience. Instructors play a vital role as both ambassadors of their institutions and as key figures accountable for the learning and growth of their students. The choices they make in their classrooms have an impact that goes beyond course content. Drawing from the University of Guelph’s mission, a guiding principle for my research is commitment “to the highest standards of pedagogy, to the education and well-being of the whole person, to meeting the needs of all learners in a purposefully diverse community”. Using an online survey and semi-structured interviews with students, I hope to determine how instructors’ pedagogical choices positively and negatively impact student mental health. Using this data, I will then design a toolbox of low-risk, easily implementable interventions and recommendations for instructors and program administrators to support student mental health within the science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) classrooms.