As part of the 2021 Lilly Conference online, Molly Robinson from Lewis & Clark College presented a recorded session entitled “Improving Pedagogy through Faculty-Student Collaboration.” Robinson helps run a program through their Teaching Excellence Program. The idea of faculty-student partnership was inspired by a similar project at Bryn Mawr college. The partnerships contribute to inclusive pedagogy at the various institutions where this system gets used as supported by articles and books published by faculty using these approaches. Students attend class and take notes but are not a student in the class of that faculty member (that semester). There is regular and intentional dialogue between the student-faculty pairs and they commit to discussing teaching and impressions weekly. At Lewis & Clarke typically five or six faculty members participate in this voluntary program. Robinson emphasized that the program is non-evaluative and intended to be informative in nature. Faculty can choose a student partner or have someone they don’t know to have their outsider’s perspective. Faculty are asked to be open to have a student observer in their classes, commit to meeting with that student once a week to have dialogue, and open to receiving that feedback. Additionally, participating faculty meet as a cohort and discuss the experience.
ongoing dialogue as a way to loosen hierarchy and promote inclusion
Molly Robinson, Lilly Conference online 2021
Students are paid thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation paid for all their time devoted to the partnership, the director, and other student-partners. Student partners spend about six hours a week in the program. Students learn techniques for note-taking and feedback. The ongoing dialogue was stated as the way to loosen hierarchy and promote inclusion. I loved how Robinson kept on mentioning how the program highlights students as partners. Students build strong relationships with faculty and feel valued and connected, according to Robinson. Several quotes from both students and faculty partners were shared that highlight troubleshooting and improvement in a supportive environment. One quote from a faculty member indicated how the student partner view helped identify and improve both the teaching and the course. What an interesting session and fantastic approach to include students in the refinement of courses and improvement of educators! I didn’t expect this session to make me think about how to implement this to improve the courses I teach and student experience. Now I am thinking about how to support student partners and train them to help educators improve.
