Deeper student-teacher partnership in 5 steps

Adopting a design thinking approach to foster community building and personal development

Abstract

Students as Partners initiatives have the potential to enable students and staff to collaborate on improving the teaching and learning experience (Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017). Following two iterations of a students as partners initiative applied across different disciplines to enhance student-teacher partnership, an implementation strategy was established through a 5-steps process of recruitment, active listening, review, co-design, and evaluation. The proposed model established deeper partnership during the learning process, delivering significant changes that enhanced students’ learning instead of the typical iterative design at the end of the learning period (course). The partnership contributed to student partners’ development through an experiential learning process. Integrating learning theories and practices with human-centered design, we explore the research question: How do we nurture a deep student and teacher partnership for positive impact? Underpinned by Argyris & Schön’s (1974) double loop learning and design thinking the 5-steps approach resulted in greater student experience and satisfaction, enabled the development of a sense of community and personal development for student partners and course convenors.