Join us in listening to and thinking with Catherine Bovill, who was supposed to give the keynote at last year's Teaching and learning Conference at the University of Göttingen in November 2022.
We are happy to invite all ENLIGHT members to an online session in which Catherine Bovil on "The case for whole class co-creation in learning and teaching: towards inclusive, relational teaching" (Thursday, 1st of June 2023, 12:00-14.00 pm CET). This event will take place in Zoom. The link will be sent to you shortly before the event.
For those of you who are in Göttingen at the 1st of June, please feel invited to join us on campus (Waldweg 26, room 3.119) for this session and to connect and interact with colleagues in a lively discussion after Catherine Bovill's talk. Please indicate that you want to join us on campus in your registration email.Optional venue for participants from Göttingen: Waldweg 26, room 3.119
Registration: Please register before Friday, 26th of May 2023 via email to
{slider Learn more about the topic of Catherine Bovill's talk in this short abstract}
Kuh (2009: 31) argues that in higher education, "most institutions can increase student engagement and success by more consistently using what the research shows are promising policies and effective educational activities and practices...but at too many institutions, only small numbers of students are involved". The growth in co-creation and partnership research and practice over the last five to ten years is encouraging, but has focused predominantly on project-based initiatives involving small groups of students (Bovill 2020a & 2020b; Mercer-Mapstone et al 2017; Mercer-Mapstone & Bovill 2019).
I highlight the differences between co-creation of the curriculum and co-creation in the curriculum through examining a range of examples, benefits and challenges. I particularly focus on co-creation in the curriculum (or whole class co-creation), which I argue has been somewhat overlooked within partnership and co-creation discourse. Whole class co-creation offers the possibility to overcome some of the inclusion challenges of other partnership approaches. Positive student-staff relationships and student-student relationships are also associated with a significant range of benefits (Bovill 2020b; Cuseo; Felten & Lambert 2020). Whole class co-creation in learning and teaching both relies on positive relationships, but also contributes to building positive relationships (Bovill, 2020a). The evidence base for relational whole class co-creation is compelling, and I will suggest that we require a shift in mind-sets to support policy and practice in this area.
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Catherine Bovill is Co-Director, Institute for Academic Development and Professor of Student Engagement in Higher Education at the University of Edinburgh. She is a National Teaching Fellow, a Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway, Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association. The Institute for Academic Development offers development programmes for teaching and research staff as well as academic study development support for students. Cathy leads a range of strategic work at the University of Edinburgh including: co-chairing the Curriculum Transformation Programme Student Engagement Strategy Group; leading the University’s Student Partnership Agreement and Student Partnership Agreement funding scheme. She is considered a world leader in co-created curriculum, student-staff partnership and student engagement having published over 50 articles and books and given over 80 keynote presentations and masterclasses on co-creation in 15 countries.
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