The teaching and learning environment has a fundamental role in medical education. A positive learning environment is essential for the physical and mental well-being of medical students being fundamental to their personal development, learning and satisfaction. To be most effective, the learning environment must be engaging and sensitive to student needs and aspirations. A teaching and learning environment that encourages academic engagement can lead to increased student performance and persistence. In this paper, we describe strategies to create an inclusive teaching and learning environment that supports student wellbeing by increasing student academic engagement.

In the classroom, student engagement and participation is encouraged using Slido, an interactive tool that allows faculty to create engaging learning experiences that facilitate metacognitive modelling. By gathering student feedback in course evaluations, faculty can assess the effectiveness of their teaching innovations, and the overall learning environment. Course evaluations provide students an opportunity to express their opinions of the instructional quality, and course materials.

Qualitative climate survey data collected from student focus groups provides a flexible method to collect student views of their education and wellbeing. By using focus groups, we identified and prioritized issues relevant to students and provided them a voice in the implementation of policy changes that may increase academic performance and promote wellbeing. Combining the use of student focus groups, to elicit student views through uninhibited discussion, with climate survey and course evaluation data in a mixed methods approach, can provide more reliable data, given that the use of survey questionnaires alone suffers from low response rates.

Town Hall meetings were employed to foster collaboration and open dialogue between students and faculty. These meetings created a space for direct communication, where students can voice concerns, ask questions, and provide suggestions to School faculty and administration. Town Hall meetings offer an immediate and informal platform for discussion, which can help address emerging issues before they escalate. These meetings also allow faculty to clarify misconceptions or explain policy decisions which can improve transparency and promote student wellbeing.

Outside of the classroom, students can participate in shared academic governance, where they can add significant value as members of school committees. In this process, students can exchange information and perspectives for institutional planning and improvement purposes. These student contributions to academic governance are becoming increasingly valued as part of program accreditation proceedings. In this way, students can gain exposure to academic medicine, facilitating their development as physician educators.

When students are engaged in the classroom, they are more likely to learn, retain the content, and achieve academic milestones. By achieving academic milestones, students experience positive emotions and enhanced wellbeing. When students are engaged in academic governance and see that their input is valued and acted upon, they are also more likely to satisfied with their educational experiences and the teaching and learning environment leading to improved individual and institutional outcomes.

Keywords: Student engagement, student wellbeing, teaching and learning environment, academic governance.