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Overview

Twenty years of empirical, compassion-focused research - within clinical psychology, group psychotherapy, neuroscience and ethnography - have identified that compassion can be accompanied by any number of emotions (in many contexts), but its distinct neural pathways evolved as psycho-biological motivation to: notice (not normalise) the distress or disadvantaging of self or others and take wise action to reduce or prevent that (The Compassionate Mind Foundation).  This fostered collaborative teamwork – and our species survival chances.  Today,  within the HE environment of competitive individualism, evidenced-based, practical micro skills of cognitively compassionate communications are being embedded as credit-bearing - along with research skills and critical perspectives - in filmed task-focused group/team discussions, e.g.  in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Health, Medical and Life Sciences, Humanities, and Law. Compared to controls, studies identify  clear enhancements to:

• student-reported mental wellbeing/social connectivity
• sustained interculturalisation in the classroom
• cross team critical thinking with statistical significance

and notable reductions in:

• the ethnicity awarding gap
• staff marking loads
• students’ inappropriate use of AI

But what do the key behavioural micro skills of compassion in student group work look like in action?  Why are businesses and the public sector using them now. How do they work in the offline vs online format?  In HE, what does their assessment criteria look like, how do they design out plagiarism across disciplines, and why are these criteria now so easy to root into HE teaching, learning and authentic assessment in ways authentically address the team work skills that employers now prioritise explicitly.   

Schedule

Speaker bios

Professor Theo Gilbert, SFHEA

Professor Theo Gilbert is Professor of Compassion-Focused Pedagogy at the University of Hertfordshire and a leading expert on the science of compassion in teamwork and leadership. His research defines compassion as a psychobiological motivation—the ability to notice distress or disadvantage and take wise action to reduce it. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology, Theo’s evidence-based methods for teaching compassion micro-skills have influenced practice across education, healthcare, and government. He is the founder of the Compassion in Higher Education Network, linking staff from over 90 universities worldwide, and was named Advance HE/Times Higher Education Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2018. He was keynote speaker at the National Teaching Fellows Annual Symposium.

Charlotte Bryce, SFHEA

Charlotte Bryce is Senior Lecturer and Lead for Postgraduate Programmes at Hertfordshire Business School and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. Her teaching and research focus on compassion-focused pedagogy, postgraduate learning design, and inclusive leadership. She co-leads the Compassion in Higher Education Network (CiHEN), promoting research and practice on compassion micro-skills in teaching, supervision, and organisational development. Before entering higher education, Charlotte held senior roles in the UK communications sector, specialising in customer experience and organisational change. She now applies this industry insight to developing human-centred, sustainable practices that enhance postgraduate learning, wellbeing, and employability.