A sense of belonging to communities in HE has been linked to positive outcomes for students such as increased engagement, identity development and retention (Masika & Jones, 2015; Soria & Stubblefield, 2015) and has emerged as a buffer to declining mental health following the COVID-19 pandemic (Gopalan et al., 2021). A key challenge for students undertaking assessment and engaging in feedback is that it tends to be an individual experience, often fraught with stress. As such, there is limited research which explicitly considers assessment and feedback as a mechanism for enhancing belonging and building communities. Our paper reports findings from a project which sought to explore and shed light on assessment and feedback practices in the curriculum for students studying on Criminology and Social Sciences programmes at a Scottish HEI, through the lens of community and belonging. We proceed from the notion that assessment and feedback practices mediate belonging and communities in unseen ways – for example through meaningful interactions between staff and students which have a lasting impact on their work and make them feel that they matter (Gravett & Ajjawi, 2022), or through group assignments which form communities that outlast assessment deadlines. To uncover these hidden connections, we share detailed and contextualised accounts of students’ learning experiences, and highlight the distinct ways in which assessment and feedback approaches in Criminology can be capitalised on to enhance belonging and build communities. We will conclude by presenting our roadmap for belonging enhancement through assessment design, and the opportunities for its use in Criminology.

Research and inspection activity in recent years characterises the probation workplace in England as crippled by staff absences and high workloads, difficulties with retention of experienced practitioners who can mentor and support trainees and a lack of cultural competence and confidence in challenging discrimination. Whilst the complexities of offending behaviour preclude simplistic assertions of cause and effect, recent high-profile cases have seen HM Inspectorate of Probation equate such circumstances with poor quality risk assessment practices and a failure of practitioners to adequately protect the public. Reflective practice has long been offered as part of the solution but does little to recognise the fact that reflection remains a ‘wicked competence’ for practitioners to master. In the context of delivery of the Professional Qualification in Probation, this paper explores the role of reflective practice in probation work and the pedagogical challenges presented by a largely asynchronous model of HE programme delivery. An argument will be made that mapping the learning ecology for probation trainees provides opportunity to develop teaching and learning for reflective practice in future.

As part of the Teaching and Learning Panel, this paper reflects upon the current position of teaching and learning activity related to participatory research approaches, including methods such as the world cafe. Whilst participatory research has been utilised in criminology research for several decades, it seemingly remains an approach less articulated in research methods textbooks, which has implications for teaching and learning activity with undergraduate and post graduate students. Case study examples of participatory research, including utilisation of world cafe methodology will be outlined, with reflection on how these projects have incorporated student learning activity. This paper provides recommendations for pedagogy and research practice in attempt to overcome associated obstacles. Obstacles include budgetary and time constraints, with further challenges associated to the sharing of power and acquiring relevant collaborative working skills to undertake participatory research. A critique of participatory approaches has been in the approach to analysis, researcher bias and the validity of findings. This paper aims to explore these issues and present alternative viewpoints based on applied learning. Integrating participatory research into criminology curriculum and textbooks is advocated for to give students a wider range of research knowledge and skills.

As part of the Teaching and Learning Panel, this paper reflects upon Criminology traditionally being taught at higher education as a theoretical discipline, rather than being applied. However, Criminology programmes are increasingly seeking to place more emphasis on experiential learning opportunities (ELOs), in order to ‘skill up’ students. This approach seeks to improve specific work-place skills and to improve employability rates for graduates but is also in response to research which reports that students often choose to study Criminology because they are interested in a career in the Criminal Justice field. This critical literature review explores the theoretical basis for experiential learning, how it has been implemented in other disciplines, and reviews how Criminology programmes apply experiential learning pedagogy. A reflection is then provided on the current Criminology programme at the University of Hertfordshire and how feasible it would be to embed similar experiential learning opportunities (ELOs) within the undergraduate degree.