Marna K. Winter, associate professor of education and associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, recently published a peer-reviewed article in “College Teaching” titled 鈥淚nviting Curiosity: Exploring Lingering Questions with I Wonder Projects.鈥�

The article explores how 鈥淚 Wonder鈥� projects invite students to pursue lingering questions related to course themes while co-creating their learning pathways. Grounded in relational pedagogy, the piece demonstrates how this flexible and reflective practice fosters curiosity, connection, and student well-being. Students reported increased confidence, ownership, and a deeper sense of meaning in their learning.

This Quick Fix article outlines a practical strategy for faculty interested in integrating co-created learning into existing courses. The 鈥淚 Wonder鈥� project is easy to implement, adaptable across disciplines and provides an engaging space for students to explore their own questions. It fosters deeper connection, curiosity, and purpose in the learning process.

This publication contributes to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and builds on Winter鈥檚 broader work exploring wellness pedagogy, inclusive practices, and student voice.

The article shares initial findings on the impact of structured play sessions in higher education as a strategy to reduce student stress and enhance well-being. Winter plans to continue expanding this work in her upcoming role as associate director in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

This in-progress study explores the integration of play sessions into higher education classrooms as a strategy to reduce student stress and enhance overall well-being. With increasing levels of stress and mental health challenges among college students, faculty often struggle with providing adequate support, particularly as most are not trained mental health professionals. Through initial play sessions conducted in two different courses, students reported significant shifts from negative emotions, such as stress and overwhelm, to more positive states of happiness, excitement and calmness. This aligns with existing research suggesting that structured play and wellness activities can improve mental health and reduce stress.

The study also considers the potential for play sessions to offer a low-barrier, creative approach for faculty to foster a more supportive and engaging learning environment. The findings from this study aim to contribute to the growing body of research on wellness pedagogy, offering insights into the long-term benefits of integrating play into higher education settings. Further exploration is needed to systematically gauge the levels of impact over time and determine the broader implications of this approach for student well-being and academic success.

Read the in Teaching and Learning Inquiry.

In her session, titled “Play in the Classroom: It鈥檚 Not Just Fun, It鈥檚 Evidence-Based,” Winter explored the integration of structured play into higher education as a tool for reducing student stress, fostering mindfulness and enhancing community鈥攁ll critical components of student well-being. As college students face increasing levels of stress and mental health challenges, faculty navigate the complex balance of wanting to support student well-being while recognizing their primary role as content experts rather than mental health professionals. Through her research, Winter has found that mini-play sessions in the classroom can serve as an impactful strategy to help students transition from stress and overwhelm to more positive emotional states, such as calmness, excitement and joy. Winter鈥檚 work aligns with broader wellness pedagogy research, which suggests that fostering play and joy in academic spaces can improve both mental health and learning outcomes.

A faculty member at 黑料不打烊 for 17 years, Winter鈥檚 research focuses on relational pedagogy, student wellness, and community-building in higher education. Her participation in the Critical Questions in Education Conference contributes to an ongoing dialogue about innovative teaching strategies and the role of well-being in student success.

Dyce also researches ways to prepare preservice and in-service teachers to interact with diverse learners and methods to engage educators with diverse families. Dyce studies the educational system all the way from Kindergarten to post-graduate studies to get the most holistic picture of the impact on racially and ethnically diverse communities.

Dyce has received the Outstanding Mentor to Graduate Students Award from the American College Personnel Association. At 黑料不打烊, she has been recognized with the following awards:  Faculty of the Year, Excellence in Research in the School of Education (May 2016); Black Faculty of the Year from the Black Student Union (April 2015); and Faculty of the Year Award in the African and African-American Studies Program (May 2014).  She has published several articles in the area of diversity and social justice. 

In 2015, Dyce released her co-edited book with Toni Milton Williams, based on the DIVAS Collective.  The was co-founded by Dyce and Williams in 2009 as a support network for black women who were earning their doctoral degrees.

Their presentation, “Using New Literacies in the Writing Process,” shared the process and outcomes of a model for engaging students throughout the writing process using new literacies, specifically, Google and Google Apps. Students were guided through the entire writing process from brainstorming topics to publishing non-fiction articles complete with text features without the use of paper or pencils. Checklists, videos and graphic organizers were shared using the web based platform, Google Classroom.

Seniors involved — Tabitha Core, Rachel Stannard, Emma Davis, Winna Pumhirun, Lauren Caturano, Fiona Bush, Tyler Alt, Autumn Carter, Angie Edwards, Sara Rosenthal, Julie Dennen, and Morgan Hilliker

With the grant, teacher candidates Ashleigh Alexander ’16, Victoria Bell ’16, Vee Bland ’16, Caleigh Fidler ’16, Amy Livingston ’16 and Anne Aurelia Lewis ’16 created a Virtual Professional Learning Community project as part of their senior seminar course. They reviewed the School Improvement Plans of four local schools in the Alamance-Burlington School System: Harvey R. Newlin Elementary School, Grove Park Elementary School, Andrews Elementary School and Alexander Wilson Elementary School. Through careful analysis, the candidates noticed that all of these plans displayed the common themes of lower than desired student reading levels and high parent expression of wanting to be more involved in their children’s reading experiences.

To remedy that problem, they created a website designed to provide families with information about childhood language and literacy development as well as strategies parents could utilize to become more involved in their children’s reading experiences. To complement the website, the group designed a bookmark containing suggestions and tips for parents, and then professionally printed 2,000 copies of this bookmark, which were distributed to every preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third grade classroom at all four schools.

These bookmarks were funded by the Stewardship Committee and help to put literacy tips in the hands of 2,000 children. These tips and suggestions listed on the bookmark provided information particularly pertaining to methods parents could use to engage with their child and help stimulate a child’s ideas about a book.

The School of Education would like to thank al donors for making this possible.

The article describes an online cross-cultural exhange project “Global 2.0,” which connects classrooms around the globe through a shared curriculm that addresses issues of identity, culture and national sterotypes. The project was developed to foster meaningful partnerships between the university, local schools and schools around the globe.

Participants included classroom teachers from Hillcrest and EM Holt Elementary in the Alamance-Burlington School System; St. Kevins Primary School in Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland; and Bay Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa.