Leeds Conference 14th May – Involving Students in Curriculum Design and Development
Yesterday Natalie, Sabine and I went to Leeds to a conference on involving students in curriculum design and development. We ran a workshop on the SAN and talked about all the ways in which we and other students get involved in curriculums in our departments. We had really great feedback from this session, with several people saying they were inspired to set up a network like we have in their own institutions.
Natalie and I then sat on a student panel at the end of the day with three other students from Leeds Met university. We explained our roles in curriculum design and development and then each worked with a group to look at issues surrounding such student involvement.
I got a few things in particular from this conference. Firstly our presence seemed to stress how important it may be to actually pay students involved in curriculum development as we are a lot more devoted to our role than many course reps may be. I again realised how lucky we are to be involved in CILASS and the SAN, for undergraduates do not usually get such an opportunity to get so involved in conferences. I also reaffirmed my belief that it is important to get students and staff in a two-way dialogue over curriculum issues so that students can appreciate how some of our ideas may not be realistic and our feedback will therefore be improved and more useful, as we can adapt our ideas to the real situation. Lastly, as Janine was saying in the last SAN meeting, again and again is brought up how to reach students beyond just those who are really keen to engage in curriculum debate. This appears to be an ongoing question..
I think the most interesting point however, is that Nat and I were pretty much the only non-sabbatical ‘students’ attending until the panel at the end. The current debate seems to be that students should be involved in curriculum design and development.. But shouldn’t they then also be involved in the debate around how to involve students in curriculum design and development?
‘Hearing the Student Voice: Involving students in curriculum design and development’
Yesterday I went to a conference at Leeds Met University which surrounded the theme of the student voice or ‘student voice’. There were concerns expressed at the start of the conference by academic members of staff, and questions they wanted answering;
“How can we changed module feedback, which currently has a synical connotation, and how can we make more students feel valued, and listened to?”
“Staff and students speak a different language, how do we overcome this barrier?”
“How can we improve our teaching to get what students want”
My answer for all of these questions can be expressed by one simple word; dialogue, and maybe one more word, partnership.
I had a few of my own points to put across throughout the day. The first was the issue of the huge gap between college and Univeristy. Students feel lost, because they suddenly switch to a world with minimal contact teaching time where they are expected to do a lot of IBL activities and independent study. Why is this such a problem for students, and how can it be addressed? By engaging again in dialogue and letting students know that this is what Univeristy is about and this is why its done (as a reminder, its done so we can become independt learners, and eventually persue our own lines of inquiry).
Another issue that was raised throughout the conference was this idea of the ‘silent student’, those ones that drift off after a few lectures and are never to be seen again until examination time. I myself have been one of these silent students, and why have I? Well because the teaching was poorly structured, not very engaging and was nothing new, so I simply chose to teach myself. To reach the silent students, you need to engage them, and this would start by a range of different teaching methods, i.e. groupwork, presentations, discussions, maybe the use of technology, interactive sessions, debates, etc…
An interesting point was raised regarding what impact should student have; impact on the content and the delivery, or just one of. I think, for me personally, I would only prefer to impact on the delivery. The content is what I have come to learn about and I enjoy the variety that my course offers. Additionally, there are some modules that are compulsory (i.e. stats) and so I feel that the content should perhaps remain set in stone. The delivery however, could be improved substaintailly in some cases. Again by engaging in a conversation with students to find out how they learn best and how they want to be taught, would encourage more attendance because for one, the sessions would be personally tailord to the needs of the group.
So. Dialogue. The problem is, how do we engage and even reach students to engage with dialogue about teaching and learning issues?
Staff need to make the first move becuase students are here for such a short time and many don’t even realise the impact they could have if they got involved!
Comment by nataliew — June 9, 2009 @ 8:04 am