Discussed at the midpoint of the Learning Community. This blog post is prepared by members of DYOM LC (find more in About Us).

This blog post aims to share the discussions from the webinar delivered by Professor Peter Felten on Student-as-Partners (SaP) and the reflection of the Learning Community with regard to the topics that have been discussed so far. SaP framework was particularly explored following past discussions that pointed to the importance of a strong partnership between students and staff for a successful DYOM.

Considering Students as Partners and Applying SaP

Students having agency over their learning is important and enables students to develop their ability to think critically. The reciprocal benefits of partnership between students and staff are as follows:

1. Engagement, i.e., enhancing motivation and learning
2. Awareness, i.e., developing metacognition and identity 
3. Enhancement, i.e., improving teaching and experiences 
4. Belonging, i.e., cultivating meaningful communities  

Undergraduate students take modules that are mostly decided by the faculty. Students and staff are mostly not accustomed to partnering and may find partnership out of their comfort zone. To conduct a meaningful DYOM, students and staff may have to unlearn some habits about learning. As actors and agents of their own learning, students may make mistakes. This is part of the learning process. The desired outcome is not a perfect DYOM, but that the students have achieved the learning objectives and acquired the confidence to be active agents in their learning process. 

SaP in Practice

Practicing SaP includes having meetings in students’ study spaces rather than staff’ spaces, as physical environments also carry the message that DYOM is where decisions and power are shared between students and staff, unlike other modules. 

Enhancing interactions with students includes checking in with students regularly (the wisdom is every two weeks) about what is and is not working and getting students to make recommendations.

In designing the modules, applying the Backward Design (refer to this post) for module preparation will be useful, as follows:

1. Articulate the learning outcomes
2. Identify what achieving these outcomes looks like (i.e., assessments)
3. Plan learning experiences to achieve the intended learning outcomes

Points for Further Discussions

In the context of DYOM in NUS, staff are still the ones conducting assessment and grading at the end of the module. At the start of DYOM, staff are the ones who will need to agree that a DYOM proposal has a sufficient scope. Moving forward, a discussion point is developing a practice such that the design of the module can be done by students as much as possible. 

Another discussion point is about balancing between allowing students to have ownership of their learning and ensuring that students learn what they need to learn. Although staff seem to have taken a backseat in the learning process, staff still need to bring to students attention lessons that are good for students to learn. In the context of DYOM, the role of staff is that of being present and guiding figures in students’ learning. The discussion point touches on the ethics of teaching and learning. 

Conclusions and Follow Up 

LC members would like to apply SaP to their respective DYOM. There may be some difficulty in the initial stages of implementation due to unfamiliarity with SaP and comfort with the typical way of module design. “Unlearning” is a powerful message to start the journey towards effective partnership between students and staff.