Tips and Exampels

Considerations for Student Recruitment

Below are issues that may be good to consider when recruiting students.

• How will the application process be structured? Will interviews be conducted?
• What qualities, qualifications, and prerequisites should students possess in order to contribute effectively?
• Requirements and expectations that exist within the project.
• How students will be compensated. Will they be employed or receive hourly compensation? Consult with the local HR department.
• Does the department have any students currently working as teaching assistants or student employees? If yes, can they be a part of the project? It's important to consider how their involvement might impact the chance for other students to participate in educational development opportunities.
• Seek assistance from local student associations and societies to inform students that you are recruiting.

For example, for the Humanities and Social Sciences, you can contact Uppsalaekonomerna, Pareto Uppsalas Samhällsekonomiska förening, Uppsala Politicesstuderande, Dynamicus, Litteraterna, Juridiska föreningen Uppsala, and others.

For Science and Technology, you can contact UTN, STS, IT-sektionen Uppsala, Uppsala tekniska fysiker, Uppsala datavetare, GRUS, and others.

For Medicine and Pharmacy, you can contact Medicinska föreningen Uppsala, Medicinska studierådet, Farmis, Kirurgiska föreningen Uppsala, Svenska läkaresällskapets kandidat- och underläkarföreningen Uppsala, Sjuksköterskornas studentförening i Uppsala, and others.

What does Active Student Participation Mean?

Common to different forms of active student participation is that students take greater and more active responsibility for their education, often in collaboration with teachers. Three definitions of active student participation from the literature are highlighted in this text as guidance and inspiration for project applications.

1. In "An Active Student Participation Companion" (2019), Barrineau et al. argue that active student participation means:

"students that support, empower, and challenge each other’s learning, as well as students as co-creators in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of higher education.’’ (p. 27)

2. Healy, Flint, and Harrington's (2016) model of "Partnership learning communities" describes four areas in higher education in which students can be invited to be co-creators: the teaching context (including in their own learning and in assessment), the development of course goals and pedagogy, in subject research, and by investigating teaching and learning in their own context.

(Healy, Flint & Harrington, 2016, s. 9)

(Healy, Flint & Harrington, 2016, s. 9)

3. Bovill, Cook-Sather, and Felten's (2014) book, "Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching," is a key work in active student participation and partnership practice in education. They define partnership as a:

‘’a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision making, implementation, investigation, or analysis. (pp. 6-7)

Concrete Examples of Active Student Participation

Active student participation is an international field within educational development, encompassing various forms and methodologies. ‘’The "International Journal for Students as Partners" and the "Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal" are two journals in which both conceptual articles and articles with case studies are published. These publications are often the result of collaborative efforts between educators and students. Here, a selection of such examples is highlighted to serve as inspiration for project proposals.

• At the University of Sydney in Australia, students collaborated with educators to enhance the sense of belonging among international students, foster relationships among international and domestic students as well as educators, and mitigate biases against international students. Notably, this initiative involved the creation of videos in which international students reflected on practical challenges related to education, socio-cultural factors, language, and discrimination. Link to the article.
  
• In an international internship program at Elon University in the United States, various strategies have been employed to enhance student engagement within the course. Students, with the guidance and support of their instructors, have actively participated in the refinement of the internship experience by providing feedback, taking on roles as "co-facilitators" in certain segments of the course, and engaging in research endeavors during their internships, which subsequently informed and enriched the academic offerings at their home institution. Link to article.
  
• At Brigham Young University in the United States, a distinctive educational approach is adopted, where students assume the role of consultants in the context of their teachers' pedagogical practices. This approach, denoted as "students as consultants," involves students attending their instructors' classes, observing the teaching, and providing constructive feedback. Prior to these observations, students receive training in offering feedback, and a collaborative dialogue is established with their teachers to determine the specific aspects of the instructional process upon which the students will offer feedback (Cook-Sather et al., 2014, pp. 67-68).
  
• At University College Dublin in Ireland, geography students and faculty members have collaboratively embarked on a project to reconfigure the virtual learning environment for an undergraduate geography course. In this context, students have made significant contributions to curriculum development by actively participating in creating new educational materials, such as videos, quizzes, and exam instructions. This collaborative effort not only fosters a stronger sense of identity and belonging among the students within the field of geography but also provides educators with valuable insights into how students perceive and interact with the virtual learning environment (Cook-Sather et al., 2014, p. 32).

Recommended literature

Access to this literature typically requires university library authentication.

An Active Student Participation Companion (2019)
Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty (2014)
Pedagogical Partnerships: A How-To Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in Higher Education (2019)
The Power of Partnership Students, Staff, and Faculty Revolutionizing Higher Education (2020)
Co-creating Learning and Teaching : Towards relational pedagogy in higher education (2020)

Conceptual articles
Students as partners: Reflections on a conceptual model (2016)
A model of active student participation in curriculum design: exploring desirability and possibility (2011)
A Systematic Literature Review of Students as Partners in Higher Education (2017)

Articles with concrete examples
Working as Partners: Course Development by a Student-Teacher Team (2017)
Partnering with students to support international students in an Australian university setting (2022)