AISHE-J - The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
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From Students-as-Partners theory to Students-as-Partners practice: reflecting on staff-student collaborative partnership in an academic development context.
No full textInformed by principles of action research and presented in the form of a report-like reflective enquiry, this article outlines and contextualises key aspects of Students-as-Partners (‘SaP’) practice as implemented and experienced in an educational development context in academic year 2020/21. Reflecting on their own experiences of the SaP model, the authors set out principles and prompt questions that aim to support teaching and learning centres and/or academic departments to integrate SaP activity in their own practices. These reflections are outlined, discussed, and positioned in relation to the growing SaP literature base. The article is accompanied by a student-generated short resource pack intended to provide practical advice supporting a broad audience of staff and students to take first or next steps with staff-student partnership approaches in their own institutional contexts.
Keywords: Resources; Students-as-partners; Student partnership
Increasing Representation in the Medical Curriculum through Student-Staff Partnership
No full textThe Student Engagement and Partnership (StEP) programme at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences is a truly progressive model of student-staff partnership. Together, the perspective of the students and the expertise of staff enables reform which is both innovative and enduring. Through the StEP framework, the REPRESENT project was proposed by a medical student as a result of the paucity of clinical images representing clinical presentations on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic skin tones in the medical curriculum. The project resulted in a significant increase in the percentage of lecture slides shown to students which include clinical images on both white skin and skin of colour, highlighting the StEP framework as a catalyst for student-led curricular change. These projects are a true reflection of the university’s commitment to heralding students as the co-creators of their learning experience. It is inspiring to see how the university acknowledges the importance of contributions from every member of the academic community in driving progress and in shaping the future of the University.
Steps to Partnership: Developing, supporting, and embedding a new understanding for student engagement in Irish higher education.
No full textThis reflective article outlines the development of Steps to Partnership (NStEP, 2021a), a new national framework for Irish higher education to support authentic student engagement in decision-making across four key domains – governance and management, teaching and learning, quality assurance and enhancement, and student representation and organisation. Steps to Partnership represents a reimagining of an earlier ‘conceptual framework’ for student engagement in decision-making published by Ireland’s Higher Education Authority in 2016. It reflects the evolution of understanding, policy, and practice at the national and institutional levels, as well as increasing emphasis on embedding meaningful student voice practices within decision-making at all levels. The co-authors reflect on the development of the new framework, particularly on efforts to co-create national understandings, as well as outlining some of the ways in which the newly published framework has begun to inform current and future endeavours to strengthen student engagement in decision-making
The Recollections of a History Student on Summer Research
No full textMy reflection on my personal experience with student engagement and partnership and the impact it had on me
Developing Recommendations for Mentoring Programmes in the Undergraduate Health Sciences.: Recommendations for Mentoring Programmes in the Health Sciences
No full textMentoring is a reciprocal relationship between an academic member of staff and a student for the purpose of supporting personal and professional development. Formal mentoring programmes offer mentoring to all students and are recommended in undergraduate health professionals’ educational training. However, there is little guidance in the literature on considerations when planning a formal mentoring programme. This research aimed to identify the ten most important recommendations of an effective mentoring programme in the undergraduate health sciences. The nominal group technique, a structured consensus group method, was used to generate and rank ideas, with iterative rounds of discussion and ranking. There were ten participants, nine of whom teach in higher education in health sciences and had experience in mentoring and/or delivering mentoring programmes. The top three recommendations related to governance of mentoring programmes (purpose for the programme, quality assurance and provision of an operational manager). Four recommendations related to the needs of the mentee (support services, matching, modeling and stability of the relationship) and three related to the needs of the mentor, with a focus on encouraging and supporting their engagement (training, time, and resources). In conclusion, the nominal group technique was effective in reaching consensus on elements of effective mentoring programmes in the undergraduate health sciences. Further research, through empirical and non-empirical methods, is needed to advance the evidence-base for effective mentoring programmes.
Keywords: Education; Health sciences; Mentees; Mentor; Mentoring; Mentoring programme; Undergraduate
A Review of the Supports Available to Third-Level Programming Students in Ireland
No full textComputer Science and programming courses are generally considered to be difficult, particularly for students in the first year of a third-level course. As such, it is an important role to support these students as they begin their education in order to better cement their learning, and to reduce drop-out rates and other early issues. In Ireland, many third-level institutions offer additional dedicated supports to their Computer Science and programming students to augment the traditional lectures, tutorials, and laboratory sessions.
This paper provides a review of the current state of Computer Science Support in Ireland. It features case studies from a sample of six third-level institutions, with authors from each institution detailing the support services they offer to their students. A survey was also sent to all third-level institutions in Ireland, asking for feedback about their support services (or lack thereof). Fifteen responses were received from institutions who provide additional supports (no responses were received from institutions without).From the results of this survey, and the authors’ personal perspectives and experience, recommendations will be made for those looking to develop their own support services,or to improve upon existing ones. Some of the key findings from this survey are that most supports in Ireland come in the form of dedicated tutors or support centres, more support is offered on average earlier in undergraduate degrees and that most respondents agree that we need to support novice programmers. Some of the recommendations include all institutions offering some form of support service, offering it as a free service and ensuring all ability levels are catered for. Advertising the service appropriately is also important.
It is the correct time to undertake such a review due to the continued growth of Computer Science as a subject, not only at third level, but now also at second level with the introduction of Computer Science to the Leaving Certificate options. Further work is ongoing in this area, with both a national group setup and an annual workshop planned to enter its second iteration in 2022
Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the Covid era and beyond: Can student partnership have an impact?
No full textStudent partnership has always played a role in Higher Education to a greater or lesser extent. In recent years, it has become increasingly common practice, underpinning the National Student Engagement Programme (NStEP). Student partnership is described as a collaboration between academics and students to improve teaching, learning and assessment (Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017). It is widely agreed that student partnership should be more than a box ticking exercise and even in ‘normal’ times, it takes a focus and commitment to make it work. However, what happens when things are not normal? This paper looks at the influence of student partnership in Dublin City University (DCU) with a focus on the School of Computing and explores if partnership made a difference to the student learning experience in COVID-19 times. It considers the different phases of the COVID-19-era and the impact of student partnership over this period: Phase 1 Emergency online pivot (March - June 2020), Phase 2 Semester 1 2020/21 Planning (June - August 2020), Phase 3 Implementing blended approach (September - December 2020) and Phase 4 Consolidating blended approach (January - May 2021) The goal of this paper is to describe an example of the processes of student partnership and representation in place at DCU and examine the influence of these approaches in relation to teaching and learning before, during, and hopefully after the COVID-19 pandemic. This staff and student representative co-authored chapter shares both academic and class representative perspectives from first to fourth year with a view to highlighting experiences and lessons learned for the future. Student representative input on likes and dislikes regarding the hybrid/online learning experience offer practical insights in relation to practices that are potentially relevant across multiple disciplines.
Exploring Pedagogic and Practical Intersections of Academic Writing Support for Faculty in Higher Education.
No full textThis is a case study of Faculty perceptions of the nature and effectiveness of academic writing provision and practice in a university in Ireland. It discusses the pedagogical approach adopted by a pan-university initiative. The focus of this case study is a Professional Development module for Faculty designed with a dual purpose - to support them to develop their own professional writing for publication, and to enable them to use the same strategies to support and reinforce their students’ academic writing. The research design used a qualitative approach to gather three forms of data for capturing the perception of Faculty: a survey (n=30) and a Faculty focus group (n=6).Findings indicate that Faculty holds clear perceptions about the nature and effectiveness of academic writing support that is most of use to their own practice: the opportunity for critical (reflective) thinking, reading and writing, using technologies and strategies to support the writing process such as audio feedback and peer review, formative feedback on article structure and development, and supports on the literature review. The results help validate, consolidate and support the current approach and inform the future role of writing support within the institution