Together we are better: when students take charge or are involved in student-staff collaborations

Tan, Karen, Wang, Hung-Yu and Zhou, Xiaoyi (2025) Together we are better: when students take charge or are involved in student-staff collaborations. 12th Change Agents' Network (CAN) Conference - University of Plymouth, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom. 27 - 30 May 2025.

Abstract

In many post-graduate taught programmes in the UK, time is often at a premium with the assumption that students will take charge of their schedule effectively. Students - regardless of their educational background and context – are also expected to rapidly adapt and adjust to their new learning environment. Invariably, there will be some who struggle more than others where the initial period of adjustment will be fraught with many challenges. What can institutions of higher learning do to mitigate them? What can intensive (9-month) postgraduate programmes do to ‘clear the path’ for this important academic journey for postgraduate students? Are there ways to increase student agency while encouraging their academic progression with mastery of threshold concepts?

What happens when educators work systematically and consistently with student representatives, with the primary goal of increasing understanding of key learning outcomes? In one such programme, on a module based around learning advanced research methods, a small group of educators and student representatives collaborated with the main aim of making the module more engaging, digestible and possibly enjoyable for everyone.

This presentation shares some insights from this on-going collaboration: where roles are already evolving within different layers or levels of activities or learning, and where transformative learning – for both educators and student cohort – is taking place. It is hoped that through sharing and presenting these preliminary results such as impact from changes to material design and content of seminars and workshops, this will spark ideas on pedagogy which can feedback into this student-educator collaboration in a positive loop of learning.

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Contributors

Author: Karen Tan

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