Staff–student collaboration: student learning from working together to enhance educational practice in higher education

ABSTRACT

The association of research and teaching, and the roles and responsibilities of students and academic staff and the nature of their interrelationship are important issues in higher education. This article presents six undergraduate student researchers’ reports of their learning from collaborating with academic staff to design, undertake and evaluate enquiries into aspects of learning and teaching at a UK University. The students’ reflections suggest that they identified learning in relation to employability skills and graduate attributes and more importantly in relation to their perceptions of themselves as learners and their role in their own learning and that of others. This article draws attention to the potential of staff–student collaborative, collective settings for developing pedagogic practice and the opportunities they can provide for individual student's learning on their journey through higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Student learning experience
• student researcher
• student–staff collaboration
• student–staff partnership
• student leadership

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the students and staff who contributed to the CARL project and to the evaluation process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The six small-scale School-based research projects were supported by the Higher Education Academy Teaching Development Grant Individual Grant Scheme (2011-2012) [grant awarded to Joy Jarvis]; and by the University of Hertfordshire Charitable Trust (2011-2012).