What Is Healthy Pedagogy?

Healthy Pedagogy seeks to positively impact the culture of teaching and learning through promotion of teaching strategies to support student wellness. Healthy Pedagogy operates out of UCR’s XCITE Center for Teaching and Learning.

Healthy Pedagogy integrates sincere mindfulness of the health and well-being of students into course design and the craft of teaching. By fostering caring, creative, and inclusive participation in the classroom and beyond, both teachers and students can experience engaging communities of learning.

Background and History

Healthy Pedagogy developed as a result of Healthy Campus, an outgrowth of both the UC Global Food Initiative and a national movement of higher education institutions drawing on community and institutional factors to shape individual-level health outcomes. Healthy Campus is a system-wide initiative that seeks to “bring health and well-being to all aspects of UCR and creates a community where health is a priority.”

The Healthy Campus ad-hoc subcommittee for “Well Being in Learning Environments'' (WBILE) formed in 2018 with funding from the American College Health Foundation (ACHF) to study, promote, and support student health and well-being in teaching and learning contexts. With the conclusion of ACHF grant activities, stakeholders formalized the work of the WBILE ad-hoc subcommittee to continue the mission of Healthy Campus to change teaching practices in ways that infuse health in order to positively impact classroom culture by promoting adoption of evidence-based strategies that improve student outcomes.

COMING SOON! The Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy

“Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy” program development is now officially funded through the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) to support a community of practice for instructors to enhance their online courses for cross-campus enrollment using either 1) at least one dimension of the UC-wide, DEI rubric (Gdoc) 2) the UCR DEI Course Design Rubric (Request Form), or their UC campus equivalent or 3) one suggestion from the UCR “Healthy Campus Guide to Well-Being in Learning Environments” (PDF ⤓). Instructors will be admitted based on their own proposals, and can engage at the level they choose, i.e.: syllabus, assignment, unit, or course. In this way, participants can exercise autonomy and work at a custom scope.

In Spring of 2024, XCITE will support up to 15 UCR instructors who will be offering their courses to students from across the UCs to enhance their online courses through "The Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy" program. Participating instructors will each receive a certificate and stipend. XCITE will host "The Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy" companion "course" at Canvas "Free for Teachers" so that guest experts and faculty from across the UCs can also access program materials and resources, or synchronous meetings and recordings.

Program participants will meet 1:1 with XCITE Instructional Designers as part of course development requirements. They'll also be required to submit 1) an outline or narrative on ways they enhanced their courses through the program, and 2) a 3-5 minute video showcasing what they did to enhance their courses while discussing actual or anticipated outcomes, and how they implemented or plan to implement their enhancements. These recordings will be repurposed, along with guest speaker recordings, at this XCITE "Healthy Pedagogy" webpage, and in the companion course that will be developed for a UC-wide DEI certificate program, currently in its early planning and development stages with efforts being led by Christopher Collins, DEIA Teaching and Learning Modules Project Manager, University of California Santa Barbara. The “Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy” coincides with additional, campus-wide programming around DEI, including through XCITE’s “Teaching & Learning Week,” intended to promote inclusive teaching.

The “Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy” program also coincides with system-wide efforts around DEI, including efforts underway by the DEI working group of the Instructional Design and Faculty Support Community of Practice to improve, promote, and socialize the UC DEI rubric (GDoc), in addition to programming through the IDEA project, led by Kim DeBacco, Senior Instructional Designer in the UCLA Teaching & Learning Center (TLC), is supporting the professional development of instructional designers by raising awareness about DEI issues, strategies, and resources, and building capacity among key personnel to support DEI efforts at both the course-level, and across the UC system.

“The Art & Science of Healthy Pedagogy” Program Description

A 6-week program on healthy pedagogy, “inclusive excellence,” and DEI, exploring various ways these values materialize in teaching and learning contexts.

Spring 2024 Program Dates:

7, 1.5 hr. synchronous meetings featuring guest experts will be held online from 11:30am - 1pm every Wednesday for 6 weeks beginning Wed., April 17th and ending on Wed., May 29th.

Criteria for Participation

While instructors from across the UC are encouraged to participate informally, regardless of the modalities through which they teach, up to 15 UCR instructors of online courses that are open to cross-enrolled students can qualify to earn a certificate and $1000 stipend.

Instructors who are interested in formal participation are invited to submit a proposal to enhance one aspect of a course using either at least one dimension of the UC-wide, DEI rubric (PDF ⤓), the UCR DEI Course Design Rubric (Request Form), or their UC Campus equivalent one suggestion from the UCR “Healthy Campus Guide to Well-Being in Learning Environments” (PDF ⤓).

If you’re interested in participating in the “Art and Science of Healthy Pedagogy” program, and would like to participate either formally or informally, then please submit your interest through the respective Google Form.

Registration Forms

Call for Proposals Participate Informally

Proposal Deadline: March 1st, 2024

Applicants will be notified: March 15th, 2024

Additional Resources

Healthy Campus Guide to Integrating Well-Being Concepts into Learning Environments

The “Healthy Campus Guide to Integrating Well-Being Concepts into Learning Environments” (PDF ⤓) suggests strategies to incorporate and integrate health and wellbeing concepts into your classrooms and student activities. Support your students’ success by implementing one or more of these practices in your courses:

^{This guide was created by various partners as part of the University of California’s Healthy Campus Network (HCN). The HCN is a network of coalitions across all ten campuses working together to promote individual campus and systemwide changes to advance a culture of health and well-being across the University of California.}

Healthy Pedagogy Videos

• Watch the “Weaving Health Into Pedagogy: UCR Faculty Share Their Experiences” Panel Discussion, 4.15.21 (Video)"
• Watch the faculty training session held for “Using the Healthy Campus Guide to Integrating Well-Being Concepts into Learning Environments,” 9.23.20  (Video)
• Read the ACHF report from the Healthy Campus Subcommittee on Well-Being in Learning Environments study about the impact of healthy pedagogies on instructor and student health and well-being. (PDF)
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Healthy Pedagogy Resources to Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the UC and Beyond

UCR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Course Design Rubric (Request Form)

• This rubric seeks to support reflective, collaborative, and iterative development of equitable and inclusive teaching practices.