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Pedagogical wellbeing & the Leeds Curriculum

Owl graphic with 'I belong @ Leeds' written over the top

Pedagogical wellbeing & the Leeds Curriculum: The embodiment of wellbeing & the university experience

Bridgette Bewick (School of Medicine)


Project Overview

Universities are spaces that inspire students to achieve high quality learning outcomes and sustained personal development. They are also places where young people report more mental health problems and lower wellbeing than their non-student peers. One solution is to embed wellbeing into the university curricula. An understanding of how to embody pedagogical wellbeing is necessary if universities are to deliver improved student mental health and wellbeing outcomes.

This Fellowship will develop pedagogical wellbeing by investigating how to facilitate and develop embodiment of wellbeing in the Leeds Curriculum. The Fellowship will promote best practice by identifying and distributing examples of effective pedagogical wellbeing, and identifying opportunities to develop and extend current provision. The views and experiences of students and staff are central to this Fellowship. To facilitate this practice, the Compassionate Curriculum Network promotes a holistic approach to embedding wellbeing in to the curriculum.

The Compassionate Curriculum

Compassionate Curriculum is about developing educational practices that are supportive of/conducive to fostering wellbeing and sense of belonging for students and staff.

During monthly Compassionate Curriculum Conversations we discuss questions such as what might a compassionate curriculum look like in practice? How can we design, deliver, and assess in ways that help (and don’t hinder) positive wellbeing. We might think about aspects of curriculum design, timetabling, integration with extracurricular activities, welcome and induction, personal tutoring and our overall pedagogy.

The conversations are an opportunity for people to come together and explore specific examples/challenges/considerations as well as the ‘higher level’ contemplation of the wider discourse. Find out more about the Compassionate Curriculum Network.


Project progress


If you would like your School to be involved and/or you’d like to receive regular updates on the project email Bridgette (b.m.bewick@leeds.ac.uk).

Project start date: October 2019