How can Tutors Deliver Effective Teaching and Support to Creative Writing Students with Mental Health Difficulties

This project arose from anecdotal evidence obtained from tutors indicating that mental health is a key factor behind students struggling to achieve their potential. During the 2018J presentation of A363 and A215 for example, there were three serious incidents which required intervention from several different University teams including tutors, Staff Tutors, Student Support, Module Teams, and forum administrators. The lack of shared understanding of how best to support students with mental health difficulties contributed to duplication of work and ineffective intervention; the wider group of students was also impacted by our failure to intervene in a timely way. 

The purpose of the project is to therefore create a clear structure and process for tutors to follow when trying to deliver effective teaching to students with mental health difficulties. 

Objectives: 

1) to find ways tutors can deliver effective teaching to mental health students in Creative Writing who are unwilling/unable to engage which creates significant barriers to learning; 

2) develop better understanding of the issues students with mental health difficulties face in the study of Creative Writing; 

3) develop better understanding of the issues tutors face when dealing with students with mental health difficulties; 

4) help tutors and Module Team’s bring understanding of these difficulties to the way they deliver teaching to these students; 

5) One of the aims is to make tutors aware of the wider OU support available to help them to support this student cohort – for example if there is a breakdown in the relationship between tutor and student. One of the specific outcomes of this project would be to create a procedural diagram outlining the correct procedures the tutor should follow in the case of such a breakdown. 

6) External source reading suggests that building resilience into Creative Writing teaching is a way to develop study skills with students suffering from mental health issues. We will look at ways this could be brought into module materials and in particular the upcoming remakes of Creative Writing modules A215 and A363. As this kind of resilience is an essential skill in Creative Writing (for example in peer feedback of student writing, use of personal material in Creative Writing assignments) this will also have implications for teaching of the subject more widely.