By: John Milkovich & Jamie Ward

As the first year of the Teaching and Learning Together (TaLT) initiative comes to a close, we have an opportunity to reflect upon the work that has been done and the areas that still require attention.

The TaLT initiative successfully brought students and faculty together to facilitate open and honest dialogue about the struggles inherent in creating meaningful partnerships. Discussions centered around developing strategies to overcome institutional barriers, establishing trust inside and outside of the classroom, and creating an environment where students felt empowered to contribute to their learning. The following are reflections and lessons learned from one student and one faculty member’s perspectives on the TaLT initiative. We do not intend to make any claim that our experience was universal, but we believe that our reflection might reveal the direction future initiatives might aim and record the positive impacts the initiative has had on us.

Jamie: “The conversations were both encouraging and challenging. As a faculty member, I truly enjoyed having an opportunity to come together with a group of like-minded individuals to discuss how to make our classrooms more collaborative. I enjoyed discussing ways to co-facilitate learning and create an environment where students have the ability to take an active role in shaping their education. I was encouraged by the insights I gained about empowering students and adjusting my teaching strategies and assignments.

“Students expressed that they felt more confident in their work when they were given the autonomy to demonstrate knowledge in ways that allowed them to highlight their skills and abilities. For example, submitting videos, art, spoken word, etc., instead of just the more traditional essay assignments when it was appropriate. The end result for the educator is often the same in that students are able to show their comprehension of the material, but for students, the ability to have control over how they expressed their understanding of the material increased engagement and investment in the course. Giving students a voice in their learning and co-constructing knowledge is something I am inspired by and the TaLT initiative has helped me consider new ways to create these opportunities in my classroom.”

John: “From the student perspective, I was encouraged by the fact that my understanding of student-centered classrooms and course design improved greatly from the group’s conversations and I feel a lot more confident advocating for myself as a student. Even my understanding of the faculty experience generally improv-ed. Additionally, I was encouraged by conversations that centered around communicating in a genuine way and providing feedback that signaled not only understanding, but a willingness to implement suggestions.”

Despite the initiative's tremendous success, there is still work to be done. While TaLT helped us better understand student-faculty partnerships and our roles in helping to successfully create and navigate them, it also forced us to acknowledge challenges within our community. One of the more difficult aspects of our conversations stemmed from a desire to take our discussions beyond simply being exchanges of information. Communities take time to build and even after meeting for the last several months, we felt there was still work to be done.

Healy et al. discussed the notions of trust and community as building blocks of student-faculty partnerships. Trust and collegial relationships cannot necessarily be developed quickly. Once trust is established, environments can be created where both students and faculty feel comfortable expressing ideas. Without trust, these partnerships cannot occur.

Due to the compressed nature of this initiative, participants needed to learn about one another and establish trust quickly as they negotiated power dynamics and discussed overcoming disparities. There was not a lot of time to get to know each other beyond the work that was completed. For example, despite the fact that we have spent several months with this same group, we still know very little about each other beyond being participants with a common goal. We couldn’t tell you more about the students or faculty participants besides what they think about the topics discussed at our TaLT meetings. We don’t know them as people as much as we know them as undistinguished parts of a larger whole.

It would be beneficial for future initiatives to include time for students and faculty to get to know one another as individuals outside of their academic pursuits. Moving beyond exterior pleasantries and thoroughly examining ways to navigate these relationships can assist in building a stronger community. 

While this initial TaLT initiative was a much-needed first step in bringing students and faculty together, we need more time to develop artifacts and to sit with the ideas that were discussed. We want to find ways to continue these conversations and discuss implementation. We don’t want future partnerships between students and faculty to merely be an exchange. We want our academic communities to feel like more than loose associations of living numbers and statistics, and feel like a real space where students and faculty can learn more from each other than what is merely assigned in the curricula.

We are encouraged by the upcoming TaLT initiatives and look forward to seeing this work continue across campus. Although at times this reflection was critical of certain aspects of the TaLT initiative, this is not intended to communicate an overall dissatisfaction with the initiative. Our experience was exceptional. For many students and faculty participants including ourselves, this was the first time we felt like we could make a serious difference in how classes are run and how we should think about faculty-student partnerships. This initiative will no doubt have a positive impact on all of the participants and we hope that the valuable topics that were discussed will be taken seriously by other members of the university community. The lessons learned over this year could impact the academic experience of both faculty and students and hopefully bring each group into closer collaboration with each other. The TaLT initiative was an excellent first step in creating an academic community of trust, collaboration, friendship, and mutual respect.