Shaping higher education pedagogy with students in a consortium setting
Vincent C. H. Tong
UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education
Can students, like professional educationalists, shape higher education pedagogy? Can they put forward their ideas about the method and practice of teaching in the form of scholarly writing for a wide audience?
Students have of course always played a role in influencing how their lecturers teach. Academics are inspired by their students’ questions and fresh ideas on their subject. Through reflecting on their interactions with students, lecturers refine their teaching approaches. Students also give specific feedback, formally and informally, on their learning experience, thereby providing valuable information that can be used to make teaching more effective. While students in higher education are increasingly encouraged to work with both academic and non-academic staff to improve the quality of their education, they are by and large addressing issues in their own learning contexts. In other words, students’ contributions to their lecturers’ development as educators have hitherto been indirect, and their impact is likely to remain local. Given the many common challenges and opportunities across higher education, there is a strong case for students to exert collective influence by sharing their unique perspectives on learning and teaching beyond their classrooms and institutions. Writing scholarly materials on teaching for academics from the student perspective would be a radical but compelling way to inspire pedagogical innovations – by challenging the very core of the conventional roles taken by students and teachers. This is what our book project is all about.
Research-based education . . .
It takes some creative thinking to accomplish this seemingly impossible task of asking students to inspire not only their own lecturers but also other teachers in higher education to teach differently. After all, higher education pedagogy encompasses a diverse range of topics – what should the theme of the book be? We clearly needed to identify and focus on a theme that academics (and students) from different educational contexts, institutions and countries would find relevant and interesting. Connecting research and teaching for student learning is one such theme. Among different approaches to research–teaching synergy (e.g. Brew 2006), research-based teaching is a model that emphasises students’ active participation in the research process (Healey and Jenkins 2009). As an institutional framework for enhancing student education through research and inquiry in academic programmes of study, the UCL Connected Curriculum goes beyond the research-based teaching model to research-based education (Carnell and Fung 2017; Fung 2017):
The Connected Curriculum framework is built around a core proposition: that curriculum should be ‘research-based’. That is, the predominant mode of student learning on contemporary degree programmes should reflect the kinds of active, critical and analytic enquiry undertaken by researchers. Where possible, students should engage in activities associated with research and thereby develop their abilities to think like researchers, both in groups and independently. These activities may include not only undertaking investigations and formulating related critical arguments and findings, but also peer review, dissemination of knowledge and public engagement. Such approaches can apply at all levels of study, from the first undergraduate year. (Fung 2017, 20)
The research-based education approach provides the ideal subject for our students to focus on. The following paragraph sets out the reasons why this is so.
First, research-based education requires continuing development of closer links between research and teaching to enhance the quality of student learning. Although it enjoys widespread support across the higher education sector, making research-based education a reality for all students at all stages of their studies remains a formidable challenge. For research-based education to be more than mere rhetoric, we need to change the institutional culture and promote the exchange of ideas about education at all levels in a university. Research-based education is therefore a current topic in higher education development and likely to remain so for some time to come. Second, research-based education, by its very nature, cannot be separated from active learning. As active learning is linked to a wide spectrum of best practices in teaching and assessments (Prince 2004 and references therein), research-based education is a useful unifying theme for discussing effective teaching practices, as it gives them a higher-order purpose. Third, advancing research-based education is a matter that concerns students as much as academics, and it transcends disciplinary traditions. Research-based education therefore serves as a platform for forging new links between different communities. In this way, students are encouraged to present their unique perspectives, as everyone has something valuable to offer to this collective endeavour in research–education synergy. As research-based education has become an institutional approach to student education at UCL, perhaps it is a good time to ask what our students really think of it, within and beyond their classroom settings?
. . . through student–staff partnership . . .
Apart from identifying research-based education as the unifying theme for our book project, it is important to help our student authors develop a broad understanding of the emerging trends, complexity and perspectives in research-based education. After all, it is important to engage our students with their curricula (Barnett and Coate 2005). We need to empower our students, allowing them to develop and present their ideas about research-based education in the form of scholarly writing with confidence. Student–staff partnership (e.g. Little 2010; Cook-Sather et al. 2014; Healey et al. 2014) is an effective way to help our students in this regard. In fact, student–staff partnership has been increasingly promoted by universities as a way of students collaborating with staff – both academic and non-academic – in taking forward agendas in research and education. Student–staff partnership is different from other forms of student engagement in that students and staff are working collaboratively as partners towards a collective goal, with power and opportunities distributed more evenly between students and staff members than established conventions might dictate. The scholarship of teaching and learning is one emerging way in which students and staff work together (Healey et al. 2014), and our book project is an example of this new type of student–staff partnership.
While it is encouraging to see that students and academics are beginning to work on the scholarship of teaching and learning together, it is challenging to undertake studies beyond small-scale work that addresses learning in local contexts. Our book project was conceived with the idea that students work with academics and other staff in a consortium of partnerships to widen the impact of scholarship of teaching and learning. We launched our R=T (Research equals Teaching) initiative at UCL in November 2015 to advance research-based education through student–staff partnership, and this book project is a key output of the initiative to date. It is part of the UCL Connected Curriculum initiative (Fung 2017). Apart from promoting research-based education across UCL, the activities jointly led by the students and staff in the R=T initiative were designed to help the student teams prepare, write and edit their chapters on connecting research and education through learning. The student author and editorial teams have worked with the R=T core staff team (i.e. the three editors of this volume) throughout the book project, adding another dimension to the student–staff partnership.
Student and staff teams in the consortium conducted student–staff partnership activities in six stages:
1.Student author team co-hosting university-wide discussion events on research-based education with a team of invited researcher–educators (the ‘R=T Professors’)
2.Student author team conducting focus groups, and writing up their findings and critical reflections with their partner R=T Professors and the R=T core staff team
3.Student author team peer reviewing their book chapters using the guidelines from R=T core staff team
4.Student editorial team co-developing a common framework on research-based education through student–staff partnership (the ‘R=T Framework’) with the R=T core staff team
5.Student editorial team working with the R=T core staff team on writing editorial commentaries based on the R=T Framework
6.Lead of the student editorial team working with the R=T core staff team to write the lead introductory pieces for the three sections of the book
The first stage of activities involved 15 UCL student authors from different disciplines co-hosting five R=T Masterclasses and two discussion events (R=T Launch Event and R=T Tech event on learning technology in research-based education) with the R=T Professors on a range of research-based education topics for staff and students across the university. The R=T Professors comprise a team of 12 UCL and non-UCL research professors with a track record in educational leadership and innovations, many of whom are also recipients of national teaching prizes. Student authors developed their own questions for interviewing their partner R=T Professors, drawing on their own experience and background research and reading. The R=T Professors, who represented a diverse range of academic disciplines, mentored the student authors on broader issues and trends in education, including research-based education, and shared their ideas and passion for making innovative connections between research and teaching for student learning. The following pedagogical themes, which are closely associated with research-based education, were featured in the R=T Masterclasses:
•Connecting students with staff research activities and real-world outputs
•Transcending disciplinary boundaries in student research activities
•Connecting students with the workplace
•Involving teachers and teaching assistants more actively in large-group teaching
•Peer-assisted learning and assessment
The first two themes are explicitly linked to research-based education with reference to the UCL Connected Curriculum Framework (Fung 2017), whereas the last three are explored in the context of how research-based education can be effectively implemented. Staff members attending the events had the rare chance to reflect on any mismatches between any of the presumed student-centred approaches to teaching and the students’ views on a broad range of issues on research-based education. Students, both attending and leading the events, had the opportunity to interact with larger groups of staff (and other students) with different academic backgrounds and roles. The staff and students benefited from these activities as they shared their experience with passionate colleagues. By working with staff as partners, the student author team therefore had opportunities to develop ideas on research-based education beyond their own learning contexts – a prerequisite to ensure that their scholarly writing would appeal to a broad readership.
After co-hosting the events, the student authors continued to work with their partner R=T Professors in the second stage of the book project. Their work in this stage resulted in two types of outputs. Five UCL undergraduate and graduate students conducted their focus groups with students and staff across the institution based on the five aforementioned themes on research-based education. They wrote up their work and findings (1.5–1.9). The second group of 10 students – all research/postgraduate students also taking on the role of teaching assistants in their departments (or having significant teaching experience) – went beyond the five themes. By drawing from their unique experience and perspectives as young researcher–teacher–students, as well as the ongoing discussions with their partner R=T Professors, they wrote up their critical reflections in partnership with their professors (2.1–2.10). We are very pleased that a young UCL teaching fellow with a track record in entrepreneurship joined the student author team in the first two stages of the work and presented his critical reflections (2.11). Each chapter in this section starts with a quote from their partner R=T Professor on the significance of the research-based education topics discussed in the critical reflections. The 11 chapters in Section 2 together showcase the students’ pedagogical ideas in three broad areas of research-based education:
•Learning as the connector between research and teaching (2.1–2.4)
•Research-based education within the university (2.5–2.8)
•Research-based education beyond the university (2.9–2.11)
The third stage was centred on students peer reviewing each other’s chapters, generating constructive discussions on topics beyond the one they focused on in their writing and further enhancing their own writing as a result. The final three stages of the book project involved a different team of 11 UCL undergraduate and postgraduate students serving as editors, again from a diverse range of disciplines. Their goal was to draw out the underpinning themes emerging from this student–staff partnership project on research-based education. More specifically, in the fourth stage of the project, the student editorial team studied the detailed reports on the five themes informed by the focus groups (with key ideas presented in Chapters 1.5 to 1.9). Working with the R=T core staff team, the students co-produced the R=T Framework (Figure 1) summarising:
•Key challenges in research-based education through student–staff partnership
•Key opportunities in research-based education through student–staff partnership
•Key principles in research-based education through student–staff partnership
The fifth stage of the book project involved applying the R=T Framework to the 11 critical reflection chapters in Section 2. Each student editor wrote a commentary on one of the critical reflection chapters using the framework they co-produced in Stage 4 of the project. Their commentaries, which form a very important part of the editorial work, are presented after the respective chapters in Section 2, giving the book another layer of coherence on the unifying theme of research-based education through student–staff partnership. In the final stage, the lead of the student editorial team wrote the introductory piece for Section 2 of the book, using all the work developed by the student author and editorial teams. The other introductory pieces for the book were written by the R=T core staff team.
Apart from the pieces from the student author and editorial teams, staff also contributed to the book project as chapter authors, making the book truly an example of student–staff partnership at all levels. Leading academics in student–staff partnership and research-based education set the scene by presenting a chapter on the international trends and contexts for the R=T initiative and the book project (1.1). The interplay between the institutional and international contexts for R=T is analysed in Chapter 1.2, bringing the UCL Connected Curriculum (Fung 2017) and UCL ChangeMakers (Marie et al. 2016) initiatives together. These introductory pieces were followed by a chapter expounding on the significance of the prominent roles played by the graduate teaching assistants in R=T (1.3) and a study on the students’ perception of student–staff partnership in the initiative (1.4). These four chapters written by academics provide the background for the students’ work on research-based education in the rest of Section 1. Featuring a different kind of student–staff partnership, the eight short chapters in Section 3 of the book, which focus on staff-initiated projects on research-based education at UCL, are each explained with students as co-authors.
. . . for a new form of higher education pedagogy
Student–staff partnership has underpinned this book project at multiple levels. The three sections of the book showcase three distinct types of student–staff partnership for advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning in a consortium setting. The consortium approach is consistent with the true sense of the word, as more than 50 students from 24 departments (10 UCL faculties) were involved as authors/editors in the book project. But how does this book on research-based education come together to shape higher education pedagogy, given all these different contributions from academics and students? What has been explained so far is from the point of view of the book project itself as a student–staff partnership on research-based education. Now we should look at the book from a different angle – the overarching themes of the three sections and how they are connected. Do the themes of the book, taken together, constitute a new way to approach higher education pedagogy?
In the first section of the book, the focus is on the context and scope of research-based education through student–staff partnership, which is highlighted by the R=T Framework. It is the ‘what’ section – recognising the international and institutional contexts, with an overview of the opportunities, challenges and general principles. The theme of the second section is showing how research-based education can be conceptualised as praxis, or a cycle of theory, action and reflection, for both students and staff. It is the ‘how’ section – learning as praxis is how research and teaching can be connected within a university and beyond. The final section of the book features case studies of research-based education through student–staff partnership in a diverse range of settings, for enhancing transition phases and fostering the formation of communities of practice. It is the ‘why’ section – not only showing the key benefits to students and staff but also highlighting the wide applicability of research-based education through student–staff partnership in real learning, research and teaching scenarios.
The critical reflection chapters in Section 2 feature a diverse range of writing styles as the authors, many of whom do not have any formal background or training in education studies, were encouraged to explore their chosen topics of research-based education. Their writing reflects the partnership work with their R=T Professors, including their co-hosted R=T events and Masterclasses, as well as their experience as a teacher–researcher–student. Some pieces were accompanied by comprehensive lists of references in education, while other chapters were more akin to topical essays written by practitioners. The research findings from the student-led focus groups (1.5–1.9) contrast with the practical case studies co-written by staff and students (3.1–3.8). The student authors and editors represent a fantastically wide range of cultural backgrounds, from Bulgarian to Malaysian, and from Kazakh to Kenyan, to name but a few. Their perspectives, which are rooted in a full range of academic disciplines, are united by their passion for research-based education. We are celebrating these diversities in student–staff partnerships through their synthesised thoughts, presented in formats that are not dictated by those found in a conventional edited research volume.
We therefore have an answer to one of the questions put forward at the beginning of this piece. Yes, students can, and indeed have, put forward their ideas about the method and practice of teaching (or ‘pedagogy’ as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary) in the form of scholarly writing. They have done it collectively and collaboratively with staff in a consortium, with a wide audience in mind. But what about the very first question – are students shaping higher education pedagogy? The students have certainly given us, the academics, a wide range of inspiring ideas and views on research-based education through student–staff partnership in the book. Perhaps more importantly, the students have given us an approach to pedagogy: working with them closely as an important part of our development as teachers in a learning community. This goes beyond taking student feedback on board as we design and refine our teaching as individuals or in small peer groups. It goes beyond engaging with evidence-based, student-centred approaches as documented in studies published by academics. It goes beyond students working with staff on education matters in committee meetings. It is the collectiveness and connectedness in the consortium setting that allows us to see the commonalities in, and passion for, inspiring pedagogy in higher education. In this way, the students have shown us that they too can shape pedagogy.
Working with students closely in these learning communities for our own development as teachers – asking students to help ‘teach’ us as a group how to teach, to put it in a somewhat provocative way – can be radical. This involves challenging the very core of the roles of teachers and students, and pushing the frontier of student–staff partnership. Given that the R=T initiative and the book project are mostly based in the UCL setting (albeit with direct input from the non-UCL R=T Professors), how relevant is it to academics and students in other institutional contexts? Different institutions necessarily mean that there are different local priorities across the higher education sector. But, as we have seen in the book, ‘learning’ is a way to connect research and teaching and to link students and staff, so involving students collectively in our development as teachers may not be such an alien idea after all. With online communities and staff development programmes featuring students’ voices, shaping our pedagogy with students may not be an insurmountable challenge. Radical as it may seem, getting students and staff together to discuss teaching methods and practice in a community setting should not be dependent on institutional priorities. In fact, it should help to address and advance institutional priorities together. The benefits to both students and staff can be transformational – as we have seen in the book chapters.
The book chapters are organised in three sections and can be read in different orders. We would, however, suggest starting with the Section Introductions (1.0, 2.0, 3.0), which put forward unifying perspectives on the book chapters. The Epilogue looks at the theme of emerging relationships between research-based education and student–staff partnership in the light of the R=T initiative, and argues how the initiative itself may be viewed as a form of research-based education. For multimedia contents and ongoing developments linked to the book, please visit us at:
I would like to end this piece with a quote from one of the undergraduate student applications for a place on the student author team co-hosting one of the R=T Masterclasses. She wrote in her application:
Academia has historically been a space where there is no hierarchy separating knowledge creators and knowledge consumers. There is an understanding that even researchers and senior academics are still learning, and thus bringing together research and teaching continues in this strong tradition of community.
She has subsequently made an enormous contribution to the project. This quote epitomises the significance of R=T in approaching higher education pedagogy with a community spirit. That spirit, together with the passion shown by colleagues and students, has given us the inspiration to take forward the initiative.
References
Barnett, R. and Coate, K. 2005. Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Brew, A. 2006. Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Carnell, B. and Fung, D. 2017. Developing the Higher Education Curriculum: Research-based Education in Practice. London: UCL Press.
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C. and Felten, P. 2014. Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fung, D. 2017. A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education. London: UCL Press.
Healey, M. and A. Jenkins. 2009. Developing Undergraduate Research and Inquiry. Heslington, York: The Higher Education Academy.
Healey, M., A. Flint and K. Harrington. 2014. Engagement through Partnership: Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Heslington, York: The Higher Education Academy.
Little, S. 2010. Staff–Student Partnerships in Higher Education. London: Bloomsbury.
Marie, J., Arif, M. and Joshi, T. 2016. UCL ChangeMakers projects: Supporting staff/student partnership on educational enhancement projects. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal 1(1).
Prince, M. 2004. Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education 93, 223–31.
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