Strengthen Student-Teacher Partnerships to Improve Teaching and Learning

Workshop Recommended citation: de Jong, S., & Riteco, S. (2025). Strengthen Student-Teacher Partnerships to Improve Teaching and Learning. In Kangaslampi, R., Langie, G., Järvinen, H.-M., & Nagy, B. (Eds.), SEFI 53rd Annual Conference. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Tampere, Finland. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17631448. This Conference Paper is brought to you for open access by the 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. STRENGTHEN STUDENT-TEACHER PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE TEACHING AND LEARNING S. de Jong a, 1 , S. Riteco a a The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands Conference Key Areas: Diversity, equity and inclusion in our universities and in our teaching; Curriculum development and emerging curriculum models in engineering. Keywords: Student-teacher partnerships, student participation, curriculum development. ABSTRACT Student participation is the active involvement of students in shaping their education through collaboration, feedback, and decision-making at various levels, from individual courses to institutional policies. Students bring a different perspective to education, providing valuable insights that can enhance both teaching and learning. Unfortunately, many students feel that their voices are not truly heard. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Technology, Innovation and Society (TIS) has been exploring ways to strengthen student participation as follow up of the PartnerUp research programme. The Industrial Product Design programme developed a student-teacher partnership where students gradually took on a more active role in shaping design education. Building on this experience, other programmes have started student-led initiatives. A faculty-wide example is the CalculusCorner: a place where students can work together on mathematics. With the engagement of its students, TIS has taken the first step to change the traditional relationship between teachers and students and create an open learning community. This workshop offers hands-on examples of student participation on course, curriculum and institutional level. Participants will identify existing student participation practices within their own programme or institution, explore different forms and levels of student participation, and develop their own student-teacher partnership initiative. 1 Corresponding Author S. de Jong s.[email protected] BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Bridging the gap: strengthening student participation Student participation is the active involvement of students in shaping their education through collaboration, feedback, and decision-making at various levels, from individual courses to institutional policies. Most universities have a course evaluation system and student representatives in programme committees, providing students with opportunities to share their perspectives on education. These structures are designed to ensure that student voices contribute to improving courses and curricula. Yet, many students feel that their voices are not truly heard. For instance, they often do not receive clear communication about how their feedback from course evaluations is used, leading to uncertainty about whether their ideas are being addressed. Additionally, students can experience a sense of distance between themselves and teachers, making it difficult to engage in meaningful dialogue about their learning experiences. As one of our students phrased it: “There is currently a gap between the programme (with its teachers and curriculum) and the students. Strengthening student participation will bridge this gap, ensuring that the programme better aligns with the students and that students become more engaged with the programme. To achieve this, open communication between students and teachers must be facilitated, allowing everyone to make a positive and active contribution to the improvement of education.” Strengthening student participation is necessary for the university to evolve into a democratic institution that embraces diversity, where all students and professionals feel at home, and where students and professionals collaboratively shape the future of education and professional practice (Guérin, 2021). Moreover, critical participation supports the pedagogical functions of our educational system, namely qualification, socialization, broad development, and emancipation. Students are not only introduced to and familiarized with the knowledge and regulatory systems of education, research, and professional practice, but they are also equipped to critically assess these existing practices and contribute to their further development (Cook-Sather et al., 2019). On a more practical level, as teachers, we view student participation as a natural part of revising education. To us, it is only logical to actively involve students in decisions about their education, at any level. Our students bring a different perspective - one that we, as teachers, may not always see - which can lead to valuable insights and improvements that enhance both teaching and learning. Student participation can be designed on course, curriculum and institutional level, and can take many forms. Students can take roles as teaching assistants, guiding workshops and classes (course level), or peer tutors supporting new students. They can organize activities that bring students and teachers together to discuss education and co-created education together (curriculum level). Self-managed student teams can help other students develop skills in interdisciplinary areas like mathematics, programming or professional development (institutional level). Building student-teacher partnerships at TIS In recent years, the Faculty of Technology, Innovation and Society (TIS) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) has successfully implemented several forms of student participation. In 2022, the study programme Industrieel Product Ontwerpen (Industrial Product Design, IPO in short) became part of the project PartnerUp, led by THUAS research groups Inclusive Education and Global Citizenship. For years the response rate for course evaluations at IPO had been low, and the programme committee did not have student members. Starting small, a group of five students and two teachers was formed to think about ways to set up student-teacher partnerships and involve more students in improving education at IPO. It took quite some time, about a year, for the students and teachers in this group to get used to their new roles. Slowly, the students took the lead: they took on more tasks and showed more initiative, while the teachers let go of their role as leaders of the group. As a teacher, this requires patience and a conscious effort to create room for students to take ownership. In three years, the student-teacher partnership at IPO has grown from a traditional relationship into an equal partnership where students are taking responsibilities and feel encouraged to share their ideas. Students take the role of teaching assistants, not only guiding workshops and students, but also actively using their perspective to improve design education. Other groups of students organize curriculum feedback sessions (Fig. 1) and participation quizzes, preparing questions to engage a larger group of students in rethinking education at IPO (while enjoying pizza). Fig. 1. IPO students at a curriculum feedback session. (March 20, 2025) The students’ perspective has not only provided valuable feedback and ideas for the IPO curriculum, but the group of actively participating students has also grown. Since 2023, the programme committee has seen the return of active student members. The threshold for students to approach teachers with ideas and feedback seems to have lowered. The slowly growing PartnerUp movement inspired other study programmes at TIS to form student-teacher partnerships and start co-creating education. A faculty-wide example is the CalculusCorner: a place where students can work together on mathematics. Students from different TIS study programmes meet at the CalculusCorner, which is also led by TIS students. The CalculusCorner opened in 2024, and a team of teachers is involved to guide the process. The idea is to gradually reduce the teacher involvement and let the CalculusCorner be a fully student-led place. With the engagement of its students, TIS has taken the first step to change the traditional relationship between teachers and students and create an open learning community. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES Target audience Student participation can exist in many forms and on many levels. Therefore, anyone interested in student participation can join this workshop and get inspired, whether they are teachers, educational support staff, education developers, programme directors or coordinators. And of course: students! Expected learning outcomes The goal of this workshop is to provide hands-on examples of student participation and let participants start a design of a student-teacher partnership that aligns with their own work. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: 1. Identify existing student participation practices. Participants recognize and reflect on the types of student participation already present in their own teaching or work environment. 2. Explore and analyse different types of student participation. Participants examine a range of student participation strategies across various educational contexts and discuss the relevance and applicability of the different models to their own work. 3. Design their own student-teacher partnership initiative. Participants develop a structured approach to integrating student participation in their own teaching, programme or organization. WORKSHOP DESIGN Time plan The workshop starts with a short introduction to student participation, elaborating on its different forms and levels (course, curriculum, and institutional). The ongoing process of implementing and expanding different forms of student-teacher partnerships at TIS is illustrated. Next, participants engage in interactive activities. They start by identifying existing student participation practices in their own work (learning outcome 1). Then, using discussion cards featuring different forms and levels of participation, they explore and reflect on new approaches (learning outcome 2). After a brief plenary discussion, participants design their own student-teacher partnership initiative using a provided template (learning outcome 3). The workshop concludes with a plenary discussion, summarizing key insights and sharing practical tips for developing student participation strategies. The time plan of the workshop is outlined in Table 1. Table 1. Workshop time plan Run time Activity Notes 10 min Introduction Student participation forms, and development at TIS. 15 min Interactive activity 1 Identifying existing student participation practices and discussion on examples of student-teacher partnership models. 5 min Discussion Share thoughts on existing and new student participation forms. 20 min Interactive activity 2 Design your own student-teacher partnership initiative. 10 min Discussion and conclusions Summarize key insights and share practical tips for building student-teacher partnerships. Interactivity During Interactive activity 1, participants take five minutes to individually write down forms of student participation that already exist in their direct work environment. They are then provided with a set of cards specifically designed for this workshop, featuring examples of student participation of different forms and levels. The cards contain real examples of student-teacher partnerships developed by universities worldwide. The cards are not content-specific such that these can be applied to any study programme, course, and context. For instance: “students and teachers cocreate course assignments” and “students organize curriculum feedback sessions”. Forming groups of three or four, participants take turns selecting cards that appeal most to them, sharing why the selected participation form is appealing for their work environment. Some cards are empty, allowing participants to add their own ideas. After fifteen minutes, each group briefly shares the favourite participation activities that came up in their group. Participants design their own student-teacher partnership initiative during Interactive activity 2. They begin with five minutes of individual reflection, identifying a theme relevant to their work where they would like to integrate student participation. Using their selected cards as inspiration, they outline a potential partnership. They then discuss their design with their group, refining their ideas. WORKSHOP RESULTS After the workshop, the participants will have gained insights on how students can help improve education relevant to their own situation. More specifically, they will have created a draft of a participation initiative to take home. After the workshop the participants can scan a QR-code to provide their details, and receive the workshop’s materials: the introduction slides, inspiration cards and the student-teacher partnership initiative template. In addition, the key insights from the plenary discussions will be recorded and summarized for sharing. WORKSHOP OUTCOMES The key take aways from the participants feedback can be summarized as follows: student and teacher partnership can be developed a lot more and it would benefit both of them. It can start with some small changes that could have a big impact later on. The presented strategies can help to change the culture within a teachers-team. REFERENCES Cook-Sather, A., Bathi, M., & Ntem, A. (2019). Pedagogical Partnerships: a how-to guide for faculty, students, and academic developers in higher education. Elon, NC: Center for Engaged Learning. https://doi.org/10.36284/celelon.oa1 Guérin, L. (2021). Partnership for collective leadership in the classroom: For a stronger engagement and participation in THUAS [unpublished thesis]. The Hague University of Applied Sciences.