“In all of my work in education, there has never been a more motivating or driving force than student voice.”
Andrew Marcinek (Educator)
Note: These five easy steps are based on my own personal learning experiences as a Programme Leader and Portfolio Lead on the BA Education Studies and Childhood and Youth Studies Programmes.
1. Communicating regularly and through different forums
How do you know that a small student board of reps is actually representative of the whole student body? You probably don’t and most likely it isn’t! The truth is, students really appreciate the opportunity to contribute their perspectives on issues which impact on their learning and experience, and creating appropriate spaces for these discussions to happen is crucial. Furthermore, their preference is collaborating with their peers in a cohort-based setting because it encourages a more informed reflection about the programme and wider university issues. It also develops student confidence to speak out about any concerns.
What the programme team have noticed about more traditional modes of gauging student voice, such as programme committee meetings, is student reps become quite timid and reluctant to speak out when the staff to student ratio in the room is invariably higher. As a result, the programme team decided against traditional meetings and instead we now integrate an additional hour into class time where students are the majority in the room; and we request a student rep to chair the programme meeting for the third hour.
Furthermore, we offer Mentimeter Q&A in parallel with verbal discussions in the meeting. This offers students, who wish to raise a point but do not wish to join the verbal discussion, another mode of communication to give their opinion. We have found that programme cohort meetings and Mentimeter have enabled more varied and fruitful discussions about the programme and its future developments.
In between these larger cohort meetings, programme reps meet for a ‘cup of tea’ with either the programme leader and/or the portfolio lead to discuss any recent issues.
Points to take away:
- Ideally students need to be the largest body in the room to gauge full and productive conversations.
- Think of all the different ways students may be able to communicate in one room.
- More casual meetings with student reps may be more advantageous.
2. Valued culture and team spirit
Students value a classroom or programme culture where they feel cared about. Building empathetic relationships with students is necessary for developing students’ confidence to engage in what might be conceived as difficult conversations with staff. Equally for staff, hearing those conversations second hand from minutes or through the programme leader can be difficult to receive and to fully comprehend without receiving clarity from the students first-hand. Therefore, having the whole programme team in the room is needed; not only does this demonstrate to the students that the team as a whole care about what they have to say but it also provides opportunity to address issues immediately with the appropriate staff member, which lowers any student distress and problems manifesting.
Points to take away:
- Empathy is key to building positive relationships with students.
- Remember you are a team! Try and arrange meetings at the most likely time for all staff to be able to attend.
3. Developing a flexible curriculum
Have you ever walked into a room and looked at a sea of students’ faces who are looking right back at you with their very unconvincing poker face, which is literally screaming at you; I’m not in the head space to participate in a session dedicated to the ‘Origins of Research Methods’ for the next two hours! Sounds familiar? What do you do? Personally, I wouldn’t teach the session, even if I had only just finished tweaking it thirty minutes ago! In this situation I have really honest conversations with my students at the beginning of the session and explain what I think I am understanding in their perceived body language. It’s important to remember that student voice can be in the form of the physical state as well as the verbal. This tells the students that you notice them and what they’re potentially feeling at certain stages of their learning matters.
It is perfectly acceptable to have a bad day especially when you are in your third year, second term and the pressure is on and you have multiple deadlines to meet! What I have found incredibly useful to overcome those bad days is having a flexible curriculum where you can swap sessions around, offer tutorials or workshops instead of taught lectures, maybe focus more on assignment support. We’ll cover Origins of Research Methods another time! Ask the students what they would like to do for the session, which is more empowering for them and more conducive of everybody’s time. Understandably this may not be possible for all programmes but just having an awareness of what may be flexible in the curriculum may lead to better student engagement at intense points of the year.
Points to take away:
- Be open and honest with the students.
- Design a curriculum that anticipates and is flexible to the pressure points of the academic year.
4. Allowing for creative expression
We as an institution are very privileged to have students from diverse backgrounds who have different experiences and passions. I believe it is our job to nurture our students so they can confidently provide a voice to those differences, passions and experiences. Therefore, as a programme we are moving towards assessment, which promotes student voice and embodies aspects of life journeys through art, story, poetry and song. Students then apply their personal experiences to the discipline through theory, concepts and literature.
Also, we are incorporating more enquiry-based learning, which encourages students to think as independent learners and develop some agency through their own point of view. We implement this as part of our sessions ‘thinking time’ where students can process and discuss with others their thoughts and ideas on topics of their choice but within the discipline of the module. This develops a deepened understanding of a topic but also provides time to hear other’s perspectives. Having opportunity for debate creates curious learners which can be channelled through research enquiry and encourage a respectful, trusting and informed dialogue with peers.
Points to take away:
- Enquiry based learning promotes student voice.
- Develop assessment which encourages students to engage through their own journeys.
5. This is a democracy!
Students should be at the forefront of helping us make decisions, not only at programme level but at institutional level as well. By establishing a culture of student voice and staff being transparent with students, we increase the likelihood of more positive student evaluations and NSS. This is because students are taking an active role in how they learn and the processes behind this; this should increase student satisfaction. Even when students may not be happy with certain outcomes due to certain structural or logistical restrictions they are involved in the discussions and therefore understand why certain decisions have to be made.
During our programme cohort meetings, we discuss ‘upcoming considerations’ which include timetabling, revising modules/programmes, options etc. Timetabling has always been a touchy subject with my students, particularly as many of my students have competing priorities outside of university. Normally the timetable falls on two days per week and finishes by 4pm. One particular year this was not possible, either the amount of days or the finish time needed to change for third year students. Students were initially dissatisfied, but I explained why this had happened and how the timetable needed to work for the whole university. This enabled the students to understand the broader picture beyond their own programme and subsequently having to make certain choices made sense to them. I offered them a choice through a voting system of either a third day being added to the timetable finishing by 4pm, or longer hours but classes scheduled for two days per week. Although some students didn’t get the choice they wanted, they were listened to and understood the final decision to be fair and justified.
Points to take away:
- Where possible, offer students choice.
- Be honest with students – transparency is key.
Dr Gemma Mansi (SFHEA)
Deputy Head of School (Teaching and Learning), Education
Reference
Marcinek, A. (2015) Amplifying student voice through digital literacy, last accessed 05/03/20 at: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/amplifying-student-voice-digital-literacy-andrew-marcinek.