Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: The Benefits of Co-Creation of the Curriculum

I'm delighted that my newest research article, Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: The Benefits of Co-Creation of the Curriculum, has been published in the International Journal for Students as Partners. This work builds on my previous work looking at the benefits (and challenges) of co-creation while extending new arguments about how co-creation helps students and staff to develop self-authorship that help them deal with challenges in the supercomplex world we live in.

See the abstract below:

This research explores the benefits of co-creation of the curriculum, which is seen as one form of student-staff partnership in learning and teaching in which each partner has a voice and a stake in curriculum development. This qualitative research analyses participants’ perceptions of co-creation of the curriculum in the Scottish higher-education sector. Initial findings show that some staff and students participating in co-creation of the curriculum perceive it to benefit them by (a) fostering the development of shared responsibility, respect, and trust; (b) creating the conditions for partners to learn from each other within a collaborative learning community; and (c) enhancing individuals’ satisfaction and personal development within higher education. Using Barnett’s conceptualisation of supercomplexity and Baxter Magolda’s three-pronged view of self-authorship, the author suggests that critical and democratic engagement in co-creation of the curriculum can develop the self-authorship of both students and staff members, including their cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal abilities which help them adapt to an ever-changing, supercomplex world.

Read the full article.

Forum for International Networking in Education (FINE)

It was a fantastic experience to attend the Forum for International Networking in Education (FINE) meeting and events around the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in New York a few weeks ago, representing Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh. I attended the FINE Forum as well as their networking events and some of their events in partnership with the AERA Graduate Student Council such as the Human Library Panel Session: Conversations on Global and Local Educational Topics. It was an extremely valuable experience for networking, hearing interesting talks, and also gaining helpful tips to enhance the PhD experience.

Several themes emerged throughout the FINE discussions, including the following tips which were shared with me which I hope to pass on to you here!

Depth, breadth, and interdisciplinarity

It was highly recommended by more senior academics that early career researchers should have not just breadth but also depth in your work and, specifically, 'programmatic research' that builds coherently and extends on previous work. Furthermore, reading outside of your subject area, engaging in interdisciplinary work, and taking risks by being open to different opportunities and interdisciplinary work was highly emphasised. For instance, Associate Professor Susan Bridges (Assistant Dean for Curriculum Innovation, University of Hong Kong) spoke about the value of making career choices based on what opportunities are most exciting or fun, and she described how sometimes unexpected experiences or roles can have a massive, positive impact on your career and satisfaction of working in academia. Go on – be bold and creative even if it may seem like a non-traditional choice or a risk. (My previous post on teaching outside of the box seems relevant here, as well as the Fearless Girl statue facing the bull at Wall Street which I saw during my visit.)

Although the AERA conference is focused on current American educational research and an overwhelmingly American audience, it was refreshing that the FINE meetings connected colleagues from around the world based at Universitas21 institutions. The FINE sessions emphasised seeing internationalisation as an opportunity and not an imposition, as well as seeing the power of interdisciplinary work across borders. Especially for those of us who are engaging in research on more controversial topics that unpick power dynamics (I'm thinking here about my work on challenging the status quo to embed partnership), the mentors at the FINE meetings encouraged early career researchers to be true to why we joined the academy. In this sense, networking and building relationships with colleagues was seen as a powerful way to humanise us and so that others may be more receptive to the controversial aspects of our work.

Networking and collegiality: draw from the power of groups

The FINE events, jointly run conference sessions with the AERA Graduate Students’ Council, and the breakfast and reception events were great opportunities for networking with other PhD students from around the world as well as more experienced colleagues. I really enjoyed making new connections with others from the University of Auckland, University of British Columbia, University of Connecticut, and Nottingham University as well as reconnecting with a colleague from Hong Kong University who I previously met at the JURE EARLI conference last summer (see a photo of us at AERA below)!

While attending conferences, presenting, and publishing your work, it was highly recommended to contribute to and learn from the collegiality of academia. This includes valuing the feedback from peer reviewers and colleagues to help you improve your work. I have found the peer review process immensely helpful for my own work. This also includes engaging in and drawing on the communities within our departments. While it was helpful hearing about how other PhD students work with their supervisors on research, have active communities where senior academics and also early career researchers mentor PhD students, it made me think that Moray House was missing a trick here and could do much more to promote a sense of community which appears to occur in other education schools. For example, some schools hold 'PhD Days' where all in a cohort would present a poster or a three-minute-thesis-style talk to their colleagues and receive feedback. I think this would be an extremely valuable exercise which would help our community be more inclusive and supportive while letting us get to know others' research and any synergies with our own.

Crafting your teaching identity

During the FINE sessions, Gladis Kersaint (Dean of Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut) emphasised the importance of teaching in a scholar’s career. She noted that the focus tends to be on one’s research identity rather than teaching (which was a theme re-emerging throughout FINE events and my own research which I hope to write about more in the future). However, it is important to gain teaching experience (even if guest lecturing or creatively teaching in other areas) and to reflect on your teaching identity. 

Later in the FINE meetings we learnt more from Alison Milner and Jennifer Tatebe (FINE Leadership Team Members) about how to articulate our teaching philosophy well to potential employers. They emphasised that this is a self-reflective portrait of teaching beliefs that demonstrates your key teaching experience and shows a strong understanding of your students, and can draw on Chism's (1998) five components of the teaching philosophy. It is not only important for recruiters but also for your own professional development. It should illustrate a few key teaching moments that illustrate your teaching philosophy, show synergies with your research, and – especially if being submitted with a job application – draw out synergies with the institution’s values and priorities.

Research for meaningful impact

Everyone focused on the importance of publishing to advance your career in academia and share your work. However, it is also important to have meaningful impact by sharing research beyond academia by informing the public of your research and its implications. This includes sharing your work on Twitter, blogs such as this one, or newspapers. An example was that, for every journal article you publish, you should either write a blog post or opinion editorial piece to share your work more broadly.

Ways to ‘do it all’ – co-creation of research

Both Marc Beauchamp (Associate Dean of Research, University of British Columbia ) and Andy Noyes (Head of School of Education, University of Nottingham) shared insightful reflections about engaging in co-creation of research with students. Marc spoke about ‘teaching like a rockstar’, by which he meant excellent student-centred teaching where faculty and tutors can work in partnership with undergraduate students to mentor them and involve them in their research (this sounds like other great examples that I saw in my research on student perceptions of teaching excellence). 

Andy also emphasised ‘teaching like a troublemaker’ and not just focusing on efficient, ‘what works’ teaching methods since it is important to develop students’ criticality. He also suggested that one way of doing this is to not see a teaching/research dichotomy but to do your research through your teaching by involving students (see my reflections on doing that through co-researching co-creation of the curriculum). 

We also discussed how there has been so little resolution in the teaching/research dichotomy in the last few generations. Perhaps co-creation of the curriculum is a solution by involving students more in our teaching decision-making and in our research? Rowena Arshad (Head of Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh) spoke powerfully about the importance of knowing and trusting our students, and the opportunities that co-creation of the curriculum can present.

Concluding remarks

The FINE forum and events surrounding the AERA conference provided valuable panel discussions, networking opportunities, and food for thought. It was great, too, to be part of the FINE collaborations with the AREA Graduate Students’ Council and to have the opportunity to attend such a wide range of other conference sessions at AERA (more to come on this soon on my blog). I really enjoyed hearing tips from senior academics, and it is good to end on their wise suggestion to own the privilege but also the responsibilities that come from being part of academia, and to enjoy the journey as an early career researcher by exploring and maintaining the feelings of excitement resonating with why we originally started our PhDs.

Our Moray House School of Education team at FINE 2018

3-Minute Thesis

Yesterday I participated in the University of Edinburgh's college-level three-minute thesis competition for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. This is an initiative to challenge PhD students to condense their vast work into one PowerPoint slide (no transitions, props, etc.) and a three-minute speech. Today's competition really showed the great breadth of PhD research across our College, and it was great to meet other researchers from across the University.

I found this experience to be extremely beneficial, especially whilst in the midst of wading through what seems like almost endless quantities of data that I have collected and trying to analyse it and write up my results. It was helpful to condense my work into such a short piece, explaining what I have researched, my findings, and why they are important. I would recommend this as an exercise to any PhD student!

So what did I write? I'm happy to share my very condensed version of my work below to help others learn about my work, and potentially help those thinking about how to structure such a short summary talk about their work. Many thanks go to Mason Robbins for his insights and support in sharing this structure with me.

INTRODUCTION:

What’s the point of higher education? Transforming students from ducklings to competitive foxes or curious cats? Or helping them defy the odds to fly like mythical creatures?

A high-quality undergraduate curriculum that is engaging and relevant to learners’ interests and the needs of today’s society is vitally important, so why do academics often create curricula in isolation?  Why don’t they involve students in curriculum design?

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Co-creation of the curriculum is one form of student engagement where students and staff work in partnership to design aspects of higher education curricula.

There are different grassroots models of co-creation including staff working with past, current, or future students who are selected or democratically involved as a whole class.

But all models are based on respect, reciprocity, and shared responsibility.

THESIS:

In my research, I look at how students and staff advance their aims of higher education through co-creation of the curriculum.

METHODOLOGY:

I identified rare instances of co-creation and interviewed students and staff across 10 subject areas at five Scottish universities.

These co-creators had developed educational resources, grading criteria, or exam questions together and student consultants supported staff to improve their courses.

I also used arts-based methods (including images such as these) in four focus group discussions with students and staff who were not familiar with co-creation.

FINDINGS:

I have found that co-creation of the curriculum brings together students’ and staff members’ different forms of knowledge, expertise, and skills. Sharing ownership over the curriculum increases empathy and respect while also promoting student and staff engagement, creativity, and enjoyment of learning.

Beyond advancing the personal and professional development of students, co-creation also helps staff improve their teaching practices. By modelling democratic engagement in the classroom, students and staff are gaining skills together to deal with uncertainty and tackle the world's most complex problems.

CONTRIBUTION / CONCLUSION

Co-creation of the curriculum helps challenge consumerist hierarchies and humanise the education experience through inclusive partnerships between students and staff.

It’s not without its challenges and risks but, for those who do engage, there are many benefits that make higher education more meaningful and relevant to their aims.

It helps support duckling students to be creative, curious, and competitive job applicants while also helping them fly beyond what they think is possible.