Many participants at the Institute already have interesting practices concerning students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. To celebrate and help disseminate these practices we are inviting all participants, and others who would like to be with us, but cannot make it, to consider submitting posters and/or mini case studies.
Posters
Institute participants will have an opportunity to share work relevant to the the theme of students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education through posters that will be displayed for the duration of the event. We’re also planning a featured poster session for the afternoon of June 11.
If you’re participating in the institute, and have a particular project or initiative connected to student-faculty/staff partnerships in teaching and learning you’d like to showcase, please let Beth Marquis know (by emailing beth.marquis@mcmaster.ca) by 15 May 2018. There will also be a place to indicate your intent to bring a poster on the registration form. Posters should be a maximum of 3′ x 4′ (91cm x 121 cm)
If you’re not attending the institute, but would like to send along a poster, please contact Beth Marquis so we can discuss possibilities.
Case Studies
Brief written case studies detailing existing partnership activities will be collected and made available for institute participants and others. All we are looking for is around 250—300 words summarising what you are doing with a URL and/or references, if available, where interested readers can find out more details. If you have evidence of impact all the better. They should be written for an international audience and avoid using terms and acronyms which are institutional or nationally specific. Two examples are shown below. They come from the collection Mick Healey has on his website (see the Students as Partners and Change Agents Handout at http://www.mickhealey.co.uk/resources). After editing, submitted case studies will be added to the Institute website and, where appropriate, also to Mick’s collection.
To promote networking at the Institute it would be good to have these up prior to the event itself. So please send your case study to: Beth Marquis (beth.marquis@mcmaster.ca) as soon as possible and if you want it up prior to the Institute by 15 May 2018 at the latest. We will continue to collect case studies after the Institute as a record of the good work being done in the sector.
Example case studies
Curricula are organised around the concept of student as producer at the University at Lincoln, UK
‘Student as producer’ is central to the learning and teaching philosophy at the University of Lincoln. In this approach the emphasis is on students producing knowledge in partnership, rather than just consuming it. The focus of student as producer is the student, working in collaboration with other students and academics in real research projects, or projects which replicate the process of research either in or outside of their discipline. Students work alongside staff in the design and delivery of their learning, and in the production of work of academic content and value. Staff and students can apply for development funds to the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme (UROS) and Student Engagement in Educational Development fund (SEED) to support work that further enables the principles of Student as producer to be embedded at Lincoln. This approach has made research-engaged teaching an institutional priority. As new courses are developed and existing ones undergo re-validation, staff and students are asked to consider student as producer in terms of the following key principles:
- Discovery – students learning through their own enquiry;
- Collaboration – working together to develop knowledge and understanding;
- Engagement – being part of a community of staff and students;
- Production – students as producers of knowledge rather than consumers.
These principles are enabled through assessment, citizenship, employability, pedagogy and curriculum, resources, skills, space and technology.
The University of Lincoln also promotes students as active partners in in quality enhancement through working collaboratively with staff, recognising that students are experts in their student experience.
Further information: http://edeu.lincoln.ac.uk/student-as-producer; studentasproducer.lincoln.ac.uk/; Crawford et al. (2015); Neary with Winn (2009); Neary (2010); Neary et al (2014); Ryan and Tilbury (2013, p. 17)
Students as Partners in Curriculum Design at McMaster University, Canada
At the MacPherson Institute (McMaster University), we are committed to partnering with students in all aspects of our work. As one example, we have partnered with the Faculty of Science to create a new first-year Science Foundations course for science students transitioning to university. This course was developed through a partnership that involved faculty members, educational developers, and students. It was designed to develop students’ academic and professional skills necessary to succeed in their university studies while simultaneously introducing students to the various scientific fields of study, academic program options, and possible future careers. It is based upon weeklong learning modules that teach these skills in the context of various scientific disciplines in a mode that would be engaging to first-year students.
In order to create relevant and current modules that would be engaging to first-year science students, third and fourth year students helped to co-create these modules through a credit course called Applied Curriculum Design in Science. Students worked in small groups to design and develop the learning modules, receiving regular feedback and support from educational developers and disciplinary subject matter experts throughout the development. These modules were showcased at an event to allow feedback from relevant stakeholders, including students, staff, and faculty from the Faculty of Science. Students incorporated the feedback from the showcase to produce final learning modules that were submitted as the culminating project for the Applied Curriculum Design in Science course. In all, ten learning modules were created through the first offering of the course.
Next, three summer students were hired to work with a course instructor to select and refine six of these learning modules that would be incorporated into the pilot offering of the first-year Science Foundations course.
Coupled to the Science Foundations course, offered for the first time in the fall of 2014, was a third-year Peer Mentoring in Science course. Through this course, upper-year students had the opportunity to engage with and mentor first-year students who were enrolled in the Science Foundations course. Peer mentors were charged with assisting the first-year students with their transition to university and the academic study of science. In addition, the peer mentors were involved in facilitating the learning modules that were co-developed by students from Applied Curriculum Design in Science course.
As our pilot year concludes, we move into a new phase of researching the impact of and experience in these new initiatives, and of course, our research is conducted with students as our active partners!
Further information: Kris Knorr & Lori Goff, knorrk@mcmaster.ca; lgoff@mcmaster.ca
