Teaching Matters
48 - Stuart Schonell
Teaching Matters Presentation Details
Title
Students as partner
Author(s)
Stuart Schonell*, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics
Subtheme
Students as Partners and Building an Inclusive Culture
Presentation Type
World Café
Room
Academy Gallery
Time
13.20-14.20
Abstract
Student as Partner is learning from, and with, each other in a mutually supportive environment. The Student as Partner group is a group of students and academics who gather for confidential sharing of experiences and challenges and who draw on the collective experience and wisdom of the group to further unit or course development and teaching/learning quality. Meetings focus on questioning, feedback and reflective conversations with an emphasis on learning and action.
While reflection can occur in conversation with ourselves, it is enhanced through conversations with others because the full realisation of the value of reflection “occurs only when others are involved” (Brookfield, 1995, p. 140). Benefits of reflective conversations, from a Student as Partner perspective, include seeing the world through the eyes of others, developing a sense of personal and professional authority, reducing isolation, reaffirmation of individual learning and teaching-related ideals, developing specific ways of working with learning and teaching “issues”, and learning to engage in critical conversations with students (Clarke, 2001, cited in Haigh, 2005, p. 10).
References
Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Haigh, N. (2005). Everyday conversation as a context for professional learning and development. International Journal for Academic Development, 10(1), 3-16.