Louise Rees 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🎨🦒🦦

Thanks for questions and blog post

A6 I have had some wonderful student comments thanking me for my personalised approach to teaching and assessment feedback.

A sense of mattering with colleagues exists but feels diminished through flexible working arrangements & worry about job security #lthechat

Do you feel that you matter to students and colleagues? What makes you feel that way?

Q6: Do you feel that you matter to students and colleagues? What makes you feel that way?
Reply with A6 #LTHEChat and your response

A5 using a platform that is accessible and inclusive for all to engage.

From a VLE perspective you can have

Discussion boards for introductions..(you model, respond and encourage)

Asynchronous opportunities to enable all to participate.

Enabling contributions to eg page content

#lthechat

How can we create mattering moments in online spaces?

Q5. How can we create mattering moments in online spaces?

Reply with A5 #LTHEChat and your response

A4 there's a lot of research in this invisible, pastoral work that often female staff take on, often agreeing to take it on but then having negative impact on promotion.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/wi...

I wonder who students would like to encourage them in mattering/belonging.

#lthechat

Is the work of belonging/mattering gendered? Who does the work of caring for students? Who do students want to do the mattering and caring roles?

Q4. Is the work of belonging/mattering gendered? Who does the work of caring for students? Who do students want to do the mattering and caring roles?

Reply with A4 #LTHEChat and your response

Can you give an example of the difference please Peter...

A3

In a desire to address the increasing student numbers in things like enrolment and dealing with queries and going for "efficiency" you can lose the personalisation. It's happening across a range of sectors and in society.

When students get to speak to a person, they do a fab job.

#LTHECHAT

Where might institutional processes unintentionally undermine students’ sense that they matter?

Q3. Where might institutional processes unintentionally undermine students’ sense that they matter?

Reply with A3 #LTHEChat and your response

A2 in the room trying to circulate, show interest & notice interactions. Saying hello!

Checking in with those who aren't engaging next time.

Common decency in tone of communications, being encouraging.

Finding out about their background and having diversity in case studies, texts etc
#LTHECHAT

How do our everyday interactions signal to students that they are noticed, valued, and taken seriously, that they matter?

Q2. How do our everyday interactions signal to students that they are noticed, valued, and taken seriously, that they matter?

Reply with A2 #LTHEChat and your response

A1 I generally agree with belonging as important for retention and mental well being and cover these concepts of being, becoming, and belonging when discussing educator identity amongst staff. But not all students want to belong. #lthechat

A1 One of the best things I have done is a pre course "survey" asking students to share a bit and their challenges. I model it by posting a video about me. Great connections which I try to continue by remembering bits about them. Showing you are interested about what's going on for them.
#lthechat

If a sense of belonging is framed as something students need to have to be a successful student, what might change if we instead focused on what we do as student-facing staff to foster belonging?

Q1. If a sense of belonging is framed as something students need to have to be a successful student, what might change if we instead focused on what we do as student-facing staff to foster belonging?

Reply with A1 #LTHEChat and your response

Dinner cleared up, just a bit late. ⌚Louise from Swansea looking forward to the chat #lthechat

A6 wouldn't it be great to establish something that looked like an inter disciplinary action learning set which enable people to plan together useful and truly integrated sessions that expose students to that breath of disciplinary lens on the issue.

#lthechat

A5 they have to acknowledge the multi-disciplinary complex nature of this problem and other similar challenging wicked problems and open up spaces to bring perhaps contested data or unfamiliar approaches from a range of disciplines for debate. #lthechat

Yes I see your point. Is it an understanding that the activity or the learning has some form of relevance and connection to them rather than an abstract concept or idea?

A4 I think that Danielle Hinton
hit the nail on the head in Q3. We have to acknowledge that these things may happen and inform the students that it's acceptable to feel those emotions and build space into any learning session and activity to allow them to be expressed. #lthechat

Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by gover...

A3 #LTHEchat #ClimateAnxiety

Students may feel hopeless, powerless, or overwhelmed, making it difficult for educators to foster constructive engagement without addressing wellbeing and emotional resilience.

Eg www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

a poster for abominable shows a girl surrounded by purple flowers Alt: a poster for abominable shows a girl surrounded by purple flowers and the phrase "and then all the stars aligned"

A3 I don't directly teach students but a personal observation is that it's often addressed at disciplinary level and maybe an interdisciplinary approach is the most beneficial. But the most challenging part of that is logistics...location, timing, staff availability alignment #lthechat

A2 now that's a tricky question! If it involves group or teamwork then the involvement of students in the way they engage is key to authenticity. But I think it's more meaningful when the task is relevant to something that they would encounter in a future career. #lthechat

Apologies for any major typing or punctuation errors this evening. I'm experimenting with the dictation feature as I'm finding it difficult to type.

A1 this would mean using case studies and appropriate scenarios and types of assessment with the topic or the format would better reflect the kind of task that a graduate of our program which is a PG teaching in higher education would involve #LHTEchat

Wednesday 4th February at 8pm GMT, we are hosting guest @cardiffrutherford.bsky.social to discuss how can we empower students to be part of a larger university ‘Learning Community’? Join the conversation on #lthechat

The recording and slides of the 4th session “Supporting Leadership Skills Development” is now available on the Advance HE Connect group.

You will need to join the Connect group to access session resources. Register via: Advance HE Connect, search for the SPDLN group and request to join.

#SPLDN

Hand holding compass. Details of the SPLDN meeting - in text of post

Join us on Monday January 26th 2026, 10.30 - 12 noon GMT to share effective practices in developing the leadership skills of Programme Leaders in Higher Education.

Join the SPLDN Group on Advance HE's Connect Platform to register: connect.advance-he.ac.uk/feed.

@clairetimmins.bsky.social

Thanks to @lydiaarnold.bsky.social for highlighting this list of books on AI on the "other" platform

www.forbes.com/sites/danfit...
#ArtificialIntelligence

Tom Tobin smiles as he reads "An Educator's Guide to ADHD" by Karen Costa.

#HigherEd, PRE-ORDER THIS BOOK!

"An Educator's Guide to #ADHD" by @karencosta.bsky.social, from @hopkinspress.bsky.social, coming Jan 20, 2026.

I was honored to be an early reviewer, & I recommend this book to everyone.

Get yours, and re-post to your friends.

www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...