Students as Partners in collaborative course design: University Science Education
Session Type
Presentation
Room
FNB 2220
Start Date
3-7-2019 3:00 PM
Keywords
Students as Partners, course design, student engagement
Primary Threads
Teaching and Learning Science
Abstract
The global Students as Partners movement showcases students working alongside faculty as co-designers, co-researchers, co-developers etc. on a wide variety of educational issues (Healy et al. 2014). In this work, we explore the impact of such a collaborative approach to course design. The course in question, a 3rd year one-semester offering called University Science Education, opened with a syllabus providing only basic administrative information and broad educational outcomes. During the first 3 weeks, faculty facilitators collaborated with students within an Appreciative Inquiry framework to develop expanded outcomes, specific learning activities, assessments, rubrics, due dates and course policies.
Written course materials and focus group transcripts from consenting students were de-identified, coded and subjected to longitudinal interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Student responses clustered around two major themes of: i) “growth”, expressed as willingness to confront and learn from personal and/or academic challenges; and ii) “effect”, expressed as students’ awareness that their education in science is now collaborative, empowered, and resting on foundational understanding.
We experienced collaborative course design as a powerful vehicle for engagement for faculty and students alike.
Healy, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York, UK: Higher Education Academy.
Elements of Engagement
This session will provide opportunity for discussion of principles of collaborative course design that may be transferable to other courses at other institutions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Students as Partners in collaborative course design: University Science Education
FNB 2220
The global Students as Partners movement showcases students working alongside faculty as co-designers, co-researchers, co-developers etc. on a wide variety of educational issues (Healy et al. 2014). In this work, we explore the impact of such a collaborative approach to course design. The course in question, a 3rd year one-semester offering called University Science Education, opened with a syllabus providing only basic administrative information and broad educational outcomes. During the first 3 weeks, faculty facilitators collaborated with students within an Appreciative Inquiry framework to develop expanded outcomes, specific learning activities, assessments, rubrics, due dates and course policies.
Written course materials and focus group transcripts from consenting students were de-identified, coded and subjected to longitudinal interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Student responses clustered around two major themes of: i) “growth”, expressed as willingness to confront and learn from personal and/or academic challenges; and ii) “effect”, expressed as students’ awareness that their education in science is now collaborative, empowered, and resting on foundational understanding.
We experienced collaborative course design as a powerful vehicle for engagement for faculty and students alike.
Healy, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York, UK: Higher Education Academy.
