Skip to ContentSkip to Navigation
About us Organization Services Teaching Academy Groningen

First SoTL grant winners at the UG!

16 June 2023

The first round of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant programme is complete with three winning projects within the UG. With great pleasure, we congratulate the winners and we wish them all the best in implementing their projects.

Awarded projects

The following projects of May 2023 will receive a grant: 

“Developing an inclusive learning environment when working in a team” by Dr Stefania Boscari of the Faculty of Economics and Business

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

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

“Inclusivity in the Master Population Studies: a participatory action approach” by Dr Adrien Remund, Dr Billie de Haas and Dr Roselinde van der Wiel of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences

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

“The Critical Creativity Toolkit: thinking-through-making as a critical practice at the MA-level” by Dr Sabrina Sauer of the Faculty of Arts

The first theoretical pathway course within the Master’s programme Media Studies: Media Creation and Innovation is “Cultures of Creativity”. I taught this course since September 2019. The course consists of weekly seminars of 2 hours and combines critical theory discussions with a hands-on approach to creativity theories. Students are assessed on the basis of a final individual essay and a Creative Demo. This Demo asks and/or answers a specific question with regard to creativity. Students use a self-chosen, justified, creative method for their Demo presentations.

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

Encouraging innovation

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant program supports teachers in conducting systematic inquiries into their teaching practice to enhance student learning. All teachers, regardless of experience, are encouraged to apply. To learn more about the SoTL grant, please visit TAG’s grant support website or ask questions directly via tag@rug.nl.

Last modified:16 June 2023 1.30 p.m.
View this page in: Nederlands

More news

  • 12 September 2023

    Art in times of AI

    Leonardo Arriagada Beltran conducted his PhD research on the interface of computer-generated art and the constantly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He will defend his Phd thesis on 21 September. His research offers valuable insights...

  • 28 August 2023

    Harish Vedantham and Casper van der Kooi nominated for 'Wetenschapstalent 2023'

    Harish Vedantham and Casper van der Kooi have been nominated by New Scientist for Wetenschapstalent 2023 (Science Talent 2023). This election is meant to give young scientists and their research a stage.

  • 26 July 2023

    Five promising UG researchers to top institutes abroad on Rubicon grants

    No less than five promising PhD graduates from the University of Groningen will be able to conduct research at top institutes abroad for two years thanks to the Rubicon programme organized by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research...