Unit 3: Learning and Memory

The Correlation between Learning Together and Social Cohesion

5.2 Co-creating with Learners

As you have identified in 5.1, learning together can bring about changes in relationships. You can adopt new roles. A carer may become a teacher or a student when working together with a senior learner. A senior learner may not need as much help with learning a new language as with everyday tasks and might be happy to take the lead and become a teacher when learning something new together with someone else.

Learning together also creates common ground and the new purpose of developing knowledge together. In educational research this is often referred to as “co-creation”. This can be defined as follows:

“Co-creation involves developing deeper relationships between student and teacher, and between students and other students. Education is perceived as a shared endeavour where learning and teaching are done with students not to them (Cook-Sather et al. 2014).”

Reference: Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., Felten, P. (2014), Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: a guide for faculty. San Francisco, Jossey Bass.

What could co-creation look like?

1. Read more about the European project “Co-creating welfare” and watch the video “How the Co-Creating Welfare training is used”.

2. Note down 3 key points of this project and compare your answer with our model answer.

3. Then check out the Co-creating Welfare Training Toolkit for ideas or helpful tips for issues you may encounter in the context of co-creation activities.

4. Finally, think about how you could co-create knowledge with your learner. Write down ideas and tips in your learning diary.