School Champion Programme

School Champion Activities

Here we offer examples of the kinds of activities implemented by our School Academic Champions to encourage and embed inclusive teaching and learning practices within their Schools.

Órla Gilheaney, Trinity-INC School Champion from the School of Linguistic, Speech & Communication Sciences, developed a “Monday Motivations” School-community newsletter during the Summer months, exploring various aspects of inclusive teaching and learning, such as within assessment, Blackboard VLE, and student feedback, where inclusivity can be infused. Órla also spoke about inclusive teaching with Jonny Johnston from Academic Practice on their Coffee and Cobblestones Podcast.

Liz Heffernan and Suryapratim Roy, joint Trinity-INC School Champions from the School of Law, exchanged views and ideas with the School’s Trinity-INC Student Partner, leading to discussions with the School’s subject librarians and student representatives through the School’s library committee. They also engaged with relevant office holders (the Head of School, School Administrator and the Directors of Teaching and Learning) about the project, particularly in relation to orientation and programme/module materials, and ran a 50-minute academic workshop introducing UDL and providing practical tips for teaching practice.

Julie Broderick and Elizabeth Forde, our two Trinity-INC School Champions from the School of Medicine, were awarded the Faculty of Health Sciences Visiting Professor Scheme in December 2021 to host Professors Joelle Schwarz and Carole Clair, experts in gender equity from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. They also engaged student researchers to conduct an initial scoping review of strategies to implement UDL principles in Medical and Health Science Curricula, and surveyed School of Medicine staff around the topic of UDL and inclusive practices. They also released a series of Tweets on ‘easy wins’ in terms of Inclusive Curriculum practices.

Brendan O’Connell, Trinity-INC School Champion from the School of English, contributes to Trinity-INC events and trainings including on Creating Accessible Content in a Blackboard [VLE] Module as well as on the implementation of UDL as part of the Trinity-INC Professional Module on Inclusive Practices for Teaching and Learning. He has also delivered local trainings within the School on Blackboard Ally, and created brief guides on inclusive teaching practices to circulate to colleagues at the start of term. He also engaged in further professional training, including a module on Perspectives in Teaching and Learning led by Academic Practice, in order to consolidate his learning in UDL within a wider understanding of pedagogical theory and practice and to articulate a Teaching Philosophy based on UDL principles. Building on this, he has liaised with the Disability Liaison officer in the School on the issue of inclusive approaches to feedback; has joined the undergraduate and postgraduate teaching committees within the School, and participated in Athena Swan activities.

Membership

For further information contact trinityinc@tcd.ie