1 Students as partners in SoTL

Involving students as partners in learning and teaching is a pedagogical approach in which students and educators work in collaboration, as partners, to improve teaching and learning experiences. This definition stands in contrast to the student-as-consumer model that has become increasingly prevalent in higher education. It also departs from the traditional ‘sage-on-the-stage’ model of teaching (Cook-Sather et al., 2014).

Collaborating with students in SoTL inquiries integrates student voice: that is, student perspectives and insights on learning, teaching and curriculum, and considerations of how to incorporate them into decision-making processes (Dewar et al., 2018).

Learning is a process, not an event, and students can play a key role in that process and in partnership with educators. When educators and students partner on inquiries into teaching and learning, both groups expand their ‘pedagogical intelligence’ (Hutchings, 2005): an understanding about how learning happens, and a disposition and capacity to shape one's own learning. While full partnership may not be practical or appropriate in all SoTL projects, good practice requires engaging students in the inquiry process (Felten, 2013).

Activity 1 Students as partners in SoTL

Timing: Allow approximately 10 minutes

As you are watching the following Center for Engaged Learning video (from 03:24 to 05:15), make a note of the key points made by the two speakers on ‘students as partners’.

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Transcript: Video 1 Collaboration with students in SoTL

DAN BERNSTEIN

Among the new emerging ideas, the two that have sort of captured me the most, one was reflected in session here at the conference this year on the role of students. It was a very thoughtful set of ideas, summarised a lot of work, a number of people have been promoting that idea, but this brought together the route difference in the metaphor of students as objects or products versus students as agents. And there are many different words and metaphors used for that- co-producers, co-learners.

MARY TAYLOR HUBER

The role of students in the scholarship of teaching and learning, there has been quite a vigorous group of people concerned with how you bring students- the right way, the wide variety of ways you can bring students into the work. Of course, they and their work and their experience are the very thing that scholars of teaching and learning are concerned with. So they are always involved in that sense, but there are more active ways of involving them. And exploring those is I think one of the cutting edge areas for the scholarship of teaching and learning in a place where it touches up against other movements in teaching and learning in higher education, including the undergraduate research and student engagement. There are a whole number of ways in which this is an area of convergence, and one in which we need to be more thoughtful and quite a bit of work is being done now. And so that's one that I'm excited about.

End transcript: Video 1 Collaboration with students in SoTL

Video 1 Collaboration with students in SoTL

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Future Directions and Emerging Trends in SoTL [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] video by Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 4.0/

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Discussion

In this video, Dan Bernstein from Kansas University, mentions the metaphor of student participation in SoTL as ‘students as agents’ in contrast to ‘students as objects or products’. He also refers to the role of students as co-producers and co-learners.

Mary Taylor Huber, Bay View Alliance and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, states that SoTL is focused on student learning – so, in a way, students are always involved in SoTL, but there are more active ways to include them. Mary is excited about student involvement in SoTL, and how SoTL has a place alongside other movements in teaching and learning in higher education, including undergraduate research and student engagement.