NEON Working Group – Addressing Differential Outcomes for Diverse Learners

This working group serves to provide a space for addressing the challenges of establishing better outcomes for ethnically diverse learners in Higher Education and explores innovative approaches to developing good practice in this area by way of practical discussions, research/case study analysis, and peer support.

Workshop Title: ‘This is the Place Where I Belong: Using Place-Based Learning to Develop a Sense of Belonging’ with Dr Victoria Barnett-Woods (Washington College Starr Center)

November 3, 2025, 2-3.30pm (online MS Teams)

This workshop will explore some of the pedagogical techniques and tools for helping learners expand their understanding of “place.” Place-based experiential learning is an excellent method for co-curricular student engagement. It helps learners to broaden their understanding of their relationship with their immediate environment, with multiple interdisciplinary interventions available to the instructor depending on classroom content. Importantly, employing place-based experiential learning assists students to develop a sense of “belonging.” Increasingly, students feel detached from their environments of learning. This workshop will provide participants with 2-3 strategies that they can implement within a place-based learning context and help to enhance their students’ sense of belonging within and beyond the classroom. Participants will also have the opportunity to reflect on and share their own use of place-based learning, examining the benefits and the challenges.

In the workshop, the following questions will be addressed:

• What are some of the challenges our students face today with experiential learning?
• What does is mean to experience a sense of “place” in the curriculum?
• How can we bring “place” to the classroom (if students cannot venture out of it)?
• How can a sense of a “place” help with a student’s sense of “belonging”?

Short Bio: Victoria Barnett-Woods has a doctoral degree in eighteenth-century literature with a focus on the Atlantic world. Previously a full-time classroom instructor, she is now the Associate Director of Experiential Learning and Programming at Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. She brings together 10 years of in-the-class experience with a passion for place-based learning.

Schedule:

2:00-2:15pm Welcome and Introductions (Karen Lipsedge, Kingston University, Chair)

2:15pm-2:40pm: Workshop summary

Dr Victoria Barnett-Woods will introduce place-based experiential learning as a learning method to incorporate into the classroom. The discussion will include:

1. What is place-based experiential learning (contexts, challenges, and benefits)
2. Types of experiential learning
   1. Rural v. Urban environments
   2. Activities big and small
   3. Reflections/Assessments/Outcomes

2:45pm-3:15pm Breakout groups and Discussions

The remaining time will allow for participants to get into groups of 2-3 based upon their discipline. They will develop one place-based experiential learning activity and assessment for that activity to incorporate in their own class.  In their discussions, participants will consider the following topics:

• What are the resources available at your institution to support place-based experiential learning?
• What are some of the challenges that your institution faces to support place-based experiential learning?
• Can place-based learning be used when leaving the classroom is not possible?
• How does your selected activity support your students’ sense of “belonging”?

3:15-3:25: Feedback, Q&A, AOB

3:25pm-3:30pm: Information about our next working group meeting