By Dr Charlotte Haigh, University of Leeds, UK, Twitter: @LottieHaigh and Dr Nicholas Freestone, Kingston University, London, UK, Twitter: @NFreestone1
Many institutions are starting to prioritise student-centred active learning approaches to student education. This means less didactic lecturer-based teaching delivery, and more interactive student-centred learning.
This isn’t to say that didactic lectures have no place in the curriculum, but we think that their use should be limited to their most valuable purpose: to stimulate, inspire and motivate to develop a sense, for the student, that they are part of a vibrant learning community.
A growing evidence base in the educational literature has shown the limited value of didactic teaching for authentic learning, as opposed to active and experiential learning which has positive impacts on inclusivity, flexibility and learner engagement.
Our students relish the opportunity to be actively engaged in their learning, to collaborate, discuss, question, and problem-solve with their peers and with their teachers thus contributing to the body of knowledge.
A global community of learners makes this interaction particularly valuable, as individuals’ contexts, experiences and local challenges contribute to the debate, and support everyone to gain new perspectives, challenge preconceptions and think about and propose solutions to global challenges.
Today our students come from ever more diverse backgrounds, are influenced by different experiences, and have different reasons for accessing higher education (HE). We aim to work with each of them, learn from them and enable them to accomplish their goals whilst enhancing their skills and knowledge.
Students should be able to “learn how to learn” and cultivate skills for lifelong learning because of their experiences with us. Enabling students to become outstanding graduates of the future, enter professions of their choosing, benefit wider society and become positive role models and advocates for HE.
At a recent webinar hosted by The Physiological Society two rather different HE institutions outlined the very similar approaches they take with their students to achieve these aims.
At the University of Leeds, a pre-1992, research-orientated Russell Group university, Charlotte Haigh discussed an initiative called the ‘Skills in Communicating Research’ course in which students are asked to complete a variety of challenges (see Table 1).
This course is an example of a course where students are partners. It sets the students a research-based challenge, provides the knowledge in an interactive way, and is delivered by staff with the most appropriate expertise, using a variety of resources. In-person sessions mainly involve group discussion throughout the module whilst students can see the relevance of each topic covered and apply this to answering the challenge, which is assessed at the end of the module. Students are co-creating the curriculum; they choose the research topic, the audience, and apply the knowledge and skills developed to their final project (Table 1).
A panellist on the webinar and a final year BSc Medical Science student Kareena Julier highlighted how uniformly positive student feedback always is for this module, highlighting the fact that the format and delivery is deemed to be attractive, engaging and enjoyable.
The choice and flexible nature of the assessment aligns to students’ own interests and skills development. Students have used their experiences on this module many times as examples during mock interviews with the Faculty Employability Officer.
External recognition of this approach is demonstrated by adoption of the principle of this module at other HE providers such as the University of Bristol after it was initially disseminated at The Physiological Society’s conference Europhysiology 2018.
Nick Freestone outlined similar interventions undertaken at Kingston University, a post-1992 Widening Participation, teaching-orientated university in southwest London.
Here pharmaceutical science students Vishal Satikuvar and Annie Lue Tafura joined Nick to relate their experiences of forming an educational research partnership with him and a professional services colleague at Kingston University. This intervention, outside the curriculum, gives students paid employment to act as partners in a research team investigating different aspects of HE provision. There is a formal application process for this scheme in which students have to apply for their positions with a cover letter and appropriate curriculum vitae. This gives students an insight of what they will need to do when applying for permanent positions upon graduation.
Vishal, in telling his individual story of participating in the scheme, explained how, as the first member of his family to attend university, he was unaware of the unwritten codes of conduct and norms of behaviour students are expected to adhere to as part of the university community. Participating in this research partnership enabled him to see the university through a number of different lenses and enabled him to feel much more secure in his journey through the institution.
Similarly, Annie Lue as a young black woman described the journey she had undertaken as an active member of the team, recounting how the project involved her talking to students from a wide variety of different disciplinary, ethnic and cultural backgrounds thus giving her a much better “feel” for the educational purpose of the institution and the different ways in which people experienced the university. This greatly improved her own engagement with the university.
Apart from this scheme (called Student Academic Development Research Associate Scheme) Nick briefly outlined other interventions employed on his courses that have had demonstrable impacts on student learning, student satisfaction and student employability. In terms of addressing the awarding gap, currently a hot topic in the HE landscape, one of the interventions covered was found to be particularly effective at improving degree outcomes for ethnic minority students.
This scheme involved students undertaking paid summer research roles in university research laboratories. Particular attention, informed by research findings from student participants themselves, was paid to recruiting from under-represented student groups.
This had the benefit of not only significantly improving the percentage of ethnic minority students achieving “good degrees” (first class or upper second class honours degrees) after successfully participating in the scheme but also enhanced the attainment of all other student groups too.
This kind of equitable improvement in learning outcomes for all student participants whilst addressing the specific learning needs of specific underrepresented groups within each cohort is a very notable feature of this scheme.
The webinar then delineated ways in which students can be purposefully enjoined to take a full part in the academic enterprise as co-creators and co-contributors to knowledge. It successfully showed that such interventions can be rolled out across very different student populations and have beneficial impacts in terms of the student experience and student satisfaction. Most importantly by co-opting students as equal partners a real sense of a learning community has been engendered at both institutions.
As Ramsden (2008) noted:
“There is abundant evidence that the most effective higher education environments are ones in which students are diligently involved as part of a community of learners. As part of this engagement, they work together with academics to enhance teaching, assure quality and maintain standards. In these contexts, they understand themselves as active partners with academic staff in a process of continual improvement of the learning experience.”
References
- https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/online-exams-technology-or-authentic-assessment-theanswer