Rethinking the problem of faculty resistance to engaging with students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education

Engaging students as partners in the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoTL) is a principle guiding good practice. Enthusiasm for student-faculty partnerships in learning and teaching continues to grow. In this essay, I want to invite readers to reflect with me about concerns of resistance to partnership practices. I interweave stories from my experiences with selected literature that is shifting the conversation about the ‘challenge of resistance’ in partnership work in learning and teaching. Positioning students as partners work as a values-based practice and in the context of ‘scaling-up’ partnership programs, I argue that our pre-occupation with resistance is problematic. Instead, we should accept resistance as part of a natural sense-making process that allows us to think together about the complexity of genuine pedagogical partnership

Practising Student Voice in University Teaching and Learning: Three Anchoring Principles

In this invited commentary, we offer three principles to anchor understanding of student voice in university teaching and learning. Encompassing related concepts and practices, the principles we offer support a shift in (1) attitude toward, (2) structures for, and (3) goals of teaching and learning. In our introduction, we provide a short history of the concept of student voice and our reason for using the notion of anchoring to argue for embracing its practice. In the main body of our commentary, we share expanded reflections on what each of the three principles might look like in practice, grounded in examples and selected scholarship. We conclude with an invitation to continued dialogue about this work

Toward curriculum convergence for graduate learning outcomes: academic intentions and student experiences

Graduate learning outcomes in undergraduate science degrees increasingly are focussed on the development of transferrable skillsets. Research into, and comparisons of, the perceptions of students and academic staff on such learning outcomes has rarely been explored in science. This study used a quantitative survey to explore the perceptions of 640 undergraduate science students and 70 academics teaching into a Bachelor of Science degree program on the importance, the extent to which outcomes were included and assessed, the improvement and likely future use of science graduate learning outcomes. Analysis of findings shed light on potential pathways toward curriculum convergence by arguing the need for shared perspectives of academics and students on graduate learning outcomes and drawing on the planned-enacted-experienced curriculum model. Moving toward coherent curriculum planning that draws on both student and academic perspectives to achieve graduate learning outcomes is the key contribution of this study. Resulting recommendations include: the need to consider the development of each complex graduate learning outcome as distinct from other outcomes in both curricular and pedagogical approach, and the need for a programmatic framework for assessment practices to facilitate the constructive alignment of assessment with learning outcomes

Engaging students as participants and partners: an argument for partnership with students in higher education research on student success

Student success is of the upmost importance across the global higher education sector with a wealth of rich scholarship demonstrating the complexity of influences and factors that shape success. This article acknowledges that complexity and focuses on how students perceive, and partner in, shaping notions of their learning success through an analysis of two in-depth case studies. I draw on the theoretical framework of students as partners in learning and teaching. Broader implications are articulated followed by a specific focus on cross-cultural partnership from the perspective of a Chinese student partner. I argue that higher education scholars researching student success and learning outcomes should take seriously the perceptions of students to inform practice and policy, while also partnering with students in our own research to more genuinely comprehend the complexities of student success