How can student-staff partnership in curriculum design impact upon learning experience and engagement?

Amee Yostrakul

Abstract

While the concept of embedding the student voice into the student learning experience is well established, in many Higher Education Institutions this is limited to hearing students’ opinions for the purpose of improving teaching and assessment. Recent research has also established that hearing the student voice work did not bring about the changes expressed by students and may be limited to a listening exercise rather than becoming actionable objectives. This article reports on a participatory research study which investigates how a student-staff partnership in curriculum design impacts upon the student learning experience by seeing students as co-creators. This paper highlights that student are likely to feel more motivated, engaged and attend lectures when given the opportunity to co-design their own curriculum. However, several practical challenges were reported in the study, including tutors’ views on the beliefs and values of pedagogic work, their perception of the role of teachers, and the students’ place in the learning and teaching process. For student voice to have a real impact on the students’ learning experience it is recommended that students need to take on a more knowledgeable active role in the learning and teaching process, and for academics to re-consider their opinions of the place and importance of students in the educational process. This can then facilitate the planning and implementation of student voice work in universities and make the curriculum more meaningful for students.

Yostrakul, A. (2021) How can student-staff partnership in curriculum design impact upon learning experience and engagement?. Educationalfutures, [online] Vol. 12(1). Available at: https://educationstudies.org.uk/?p=16044 [Accessed 24 Apr, 2024].