Open Discussion: Teaching practices to support student well-being

In 2020, the Duke community finds itself in a challenging environment, unprecedented in the university's history. We are dealing with an ongoing worldwide pandemic, social and political unrest and turmoil, and a worsening economic situation, all in the context of continuing our courses, research, and ongoing work at the university. Students learning at Duke this year (online or in-person) will likely be exhausted, lonely, scared, frustrated, angry, and potentially grieving because of the pandemic, the recent protests, and the state of the world. There are no easy answers or simple fixes for the circumstances, and faculty are feeling some of the same emotions and struggling with similar stressors.

While faculty generally aren't trained as or expected to be counselors, there are adjustments you can make in your teaching plans to demonstrate increased flexibility, empathy, inclusivity and care for student well-being, and to try to best support student learning. This session will be an informal roundtable for sharing and brainstorming how we can reflect care for student well-being in teaching approaches. Our intent is to provide a venue for sharing and learning from each other.

The Zoom link will be emailed before the event start time. Register by following the link below.