Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Mick Healey HE Consultant and Researcher

HE Consultant and Researcher and Emeritus Professor University of Gloucestershire, (UoG) UK; Adjunct Professor Macquarie University; Previously Director Centre for Active Learning, University of Gloucestershire Ex-VP for Europe Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow HE Academy Co-Editor of International Journal for Academic Development (IJAD) ( ) Visiting expert to Higher Education Authority for Ireland evaluating teaching and learning components of Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (2003) Advisor to Canadian Federal Government ‘Roundtable on Research, Teaching and Learning in post-Secondary Education’ (2006) Advisor to National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (Ireland) ( ); Visiting Teaching Fellow UCC (2012) Advisor to Australian Learning and Teaching Council / Office of Learning and Teaching Projects on the ‘Teaching-research nexus’ ( ), ‘Undergraduate research’ ( ); ‘Teaching research’ ( ); and ‘Capstone curriculum across disciplines’ ( ) Advisor to EU Bologna and HE Reform Experts on research-based education (2012) Research interests: linking research and teaching; scholarship of teaching; active learning; developing an inclusive curriculum; students as change agents; students as partners Brief biography

Students as partners: Structure 1.The nature of students as partners 2.Conceptual frameworks 3.Case studies 4.Issues in implementing 5.Action planning

Students as partners What does ‘students as partners’ mean to you? In pairs you each have one minute to tell the other person your thoughts or experiences in this area.

Recent reports and publications

Students as partners: A simple model

Engaging students as partners in higher education

Students as partners: Line-up I want you to position yourself on a line according to the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements Talk to the person next to you about why you have positioned yourself where you have and as a consequence you may need to ‘move’

Students as partners: Line-up “It should be the norm that students are engaged as co-partners and co-designers in university and department learning and teaching initiatives.” Strongly Strongly agree disagree

The Centre for Active Learning approach to active learning

High Impact Activities  First-Year Seminars and Experiences  First-Year Seminars and Experiences  Common Intellectual Experiences  Learning Communities  Writing-Intensive Courses  Collaborative Assignments and Projects  “Science as Science Is Done”; Undergraduate Research  Diversity/Global Learning  Service Learning, Community-Based Learning  Internships  Capstone Courses and Projects Source: Kuh, 2008

STUDENTS ARE PARTICIPANTS EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS STUDENTS FREQUENTLY ARE AN AUDIENCE Research-tutored Research-based Research-led Research-oriented Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (based on Healey, 2005, 70) Engaging in research discussions Undertaking research and inquiry Learning about current research in the discipline Developing research and inquiry skills and techniques

Students as change agents “There is a subtle, but extremely important, difference between an institution that ‘listens’ to students and responds accordingly, and an institution that gives students the opportunity to explore areas that they believe to be significant, to recommend solutions and to bring about the required changes. The concept of ‘listening to the student voice’ – implicitly if not deliberately – supports the perspective of student as ‘consumer’, whereas ‘students as change agents’ explicitly supports a view of the student as ‘active collaborator’ and ‘co-producer’, with the potential for transformation.” (Dunne in Dunne and Zandstra, 2011).

A theoretical model for students as change agents (Dunne & Zandstra, 2011) EMPHASIS ON THE STUDENT VOICE STUDENTS AS EVALUATORS OF THEIR HE EXPERIENCE (THE STUDENT VOICE) STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESS STUDENTS AS AGENTS FOR CHANGE STUDENTS AS PARTNERS CO- CREATORS AND EXPERTS EMPHASIS ON THE UNIVERSITY AS DRIVER Integrating students into educational change EMPHASIS ON THE STUDENT AS DRIVER EMPHASIS ON THE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Ladder of student participation in curriculum design Partnership - a negotiated curriculum Stud ents incre asing ly activ e in parti cipat ion Students in control Student control of some areas of choice Students control of prescribed areas Wide choice from prescribed choices Limited choice from prescribed choices Dictated curriculum – no interaction Participation claimed, tutor in control Students control decision-making and have substantial influence Students have some choice and influence Tutors control decision-making informed by student feedback Tutors control decision-making Source: Bovill and Bulley (2011), adapted from Arnstein (1969) See: Fig 3 p.3

Students as partners: Case studies In groups of 3s and 4s each skim read a different case study (pp.1-6). Discuss whether any of the ideas may be amended for application in your context. 10 minutes

Students as change agents: students as partners and leaders ‘… students are neither disciplinary nor pedagogical experts. Rather, their experience and expertise typically is in being a student - something that many faculty [staff] have not been for many years. They understand where they and their peers are coming from and, often, where they think they are going’ (Cook-Sather et al. 2014, 27).

Anticipated challenge areas On the post-its identify one challenge per sticker that you anticipate encountering implementing students as change agents initiatives. 5 minutes

Break out activity  Establish small groups for each theme  Identify 3-5 ‘solutions’ to the potential challenges  Record your solutions on flip chart paper 8 minutes

Students as patners: conclusions “It should be the norm, not the exception, that students are engaged as co-partners and co-designers in all university and department learning and teaching initiatives, strategies and practices.”

Students as partners: conclusions If students as change agents are to be truly integrated into HE then the nature of higher education will need to be reconceptualised. “universities need to move towards creating inclusive scholarly knowledge-building communities. … The notion of inclusive scholarly knowledge-building communities invites us to consider new ideas about who the scholars are in universities and how they might work in partnership.” (Brew, 2007, 4) There is a need to do more thinking ‘outside the box’.

THE END For more pictures and a 1.5 min movie of Tess see: