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New pan-European project examines innovative art-based approaches to teaching

Jayne Peake

Engagement Manager

05 February 2021

King’s and a range of international partners have won a new three-year grant to explore ways of transforming teaching and learning. Two of the project partners, Jayne Peake, Engagement Manager in the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy (SSPP), and Dr Flora Smyth Zahra, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences (FoDOCS), explain more about the innovative project.

What is the new project and who is involved?

Jayne: The ARTHEWE project is a three-year educational initiative funded by Erasmus+ involving King’s College London and Turku University, Helsinki with partner organizations from Sweden, Finland, Greece and Ireland. From King’s, we have myself and Dr Michael Flavin from SSPP, Dr Flora Smyth Zahra and Professor Kim Piper from FoDOCS with additional expertise from The Arts Cabinet and the King's Arts, Health and Wellbeing network.

What is the aim of this project?

Flora: The project will allow researchers and practitioners space to invest in curriculum development in partnership with international HE institutions. The partners will co-develop innovative study modules in arts, health and wellbeing education with the aim to evidence the value of transformational learning strategies on student wellbeing and professional identity formation. It aims to build on a 2019 WHO report launched in Helsinki which set out the evidence base for arts and health interventions.

Using innovative pedagogy and arts-based content is vital in developing King’s position as one of the world-leading universities when it comes to engaging with global challenges, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – Professor 'Funmi Olonisakin, Vice President & Vice Principal (International)

What will be happening at King’s?

Jayne: King’s will run a series of movement workshops and artist enquiry for a group of final year Dental students. Workshops will be facilitated by Mark Rietema inviting students into a physical exploration of challenges they may face in the world of work, putting aside intellectual knowledge in favour of a more 'felt' experience.

What will students gain from this?

Flora: Activities will be aimed at supporting professional identity formation, building leadership attributes, cultural agility, situational awareness and conflict resolution.

What change does the project hope to make?

Jayne: We want to give equal opportunity to students of all disciplines to experience a different mode of acquiring knowledge that allows alternative ways of seeing the world and their place in it. We hope that our findings will support the integration new experiential and arts-based modules into core curricula across all King’s faculties. We also have a range of academic outputs which include joint cross-institution modules, joint publications, and an international conference in 2022 with the Arts Cabinet.

At King’s we want to be a leader in developing better ways of teaching and learning. With our partners, this project will help us make real progress in applying creative and embodied approaches, highlighting student wellbeing.– Professor Frans Berkhout, Executive Dean, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy