Student-led teaching is an educational approach where students take an active role in co-creating their learning experience, with teachers serving as facilitators rather than directors of knowledge.
What is student-led teaching?
As a way of defining the term, student-led or learner-led teaching is characterised by “a teaching approach that aims to give students control, ownership, and accountability over their own education while the teacher acts as facilitator and resource person” (Iversen et al., 2015). Although there are overlaps with other concepts like student-centred, self-directed or active learning, student-led teaching is a more radical concept in that it upends conventional roles. Rather than receiving teaching, students adopt a role of co-creators of learning. Meanwhile, the role of the teacher meanwhile shifts from directing learning to facilitating learning (Purkarthofer and Mäntysalo, 2022). Thus, student-led teaching does not mean that teachers simply disappear from the picture entirely. It does mean, however, that roles like "content expert", "learning activity designer" or "feedback provider" may no longer be exclusively held by the teacher.
Why do it?
For students, student-led teaching can contribute to:
- improved learning outcomes;
- increased engagement and motivation;
- greater autonomy and meaning;
- and a feeling of learning being more rewarding and authentic.
The experience of undertaking student-led teaching can also contribute to personal development through the development of skills related to leadership, teamwork and communication, as well as confidence and a broader sense of belonging (Purkarthofer and Mäntysalo, 2022).
For teachers, student-led teaching offers an opportunity to explore unconventional approaches to teaching that can be especially rewarding. Many teachers may already be using these approaches without considering them to be particularly radical or special. But in reflecting on our practices and by obtaining and analysing evidence of their effectiveness, we can start to be more intentional about the ways in which student-led teaching informs our teaching more broadly.
What does student-led teaching look like in practice?
Published examples of student-led teaching include a spectrum of approaches. On the one end, “the teacher’s vision leads the design and decides the content of the teaching, but there is room left for adjustment based on students’ feedback” (Iversen et al., 2015). In other words, teachers enter a subject or module with a learning design—but the design itself includes moments to solicit feedback from students and make adjustments accordingly. In this way, students are invited to participate as consultants to inform the direction of the learning content and/or activities.
In more radical instances, “students are involved in the design of teaching” or “teaching is done by students and for students” (Iversen et al., 2015). This might include various peer learning activities like student-led workshops/presentations or peer feedback processes.
What are some of the challenges?
No one said it would be easy! For student-led teaching to operate effectively, teachers must “be open to having our views on teaching challenged” (Iversen et al., 2015). To be sure, it can be challenging for either teachers or students unfamiliar with more “democratic” styles of teaching and learning—or for whom there is a mismatch between these approaches and their existing beliefs/values/identities (as teachers or students). For students, participating authentically in student-led teaching demands self-management skills and a willingness to experience a certain degree of “messiness” in the learning design process. For teachers, it requires careful planning to accommodate diverse learner needs and help students to document/evidence their learning, whilst ensuring that subject design (including assessment) aligns to the student-led approach.
What are some examples of student-led teaching in ABP disciplines?
Student-led teaching in the studio
In conventional studio pedagogy, teachers tend to adopt a range of roles, from coach to critical friend to role-playing a client or consultant to assessor. This opens a range of possibilities for students to participate in a “teaching” role. Students are often invited to serve as peer critics—but perhaps less frequently as experts in their own right. One example is dividing up the analysis of complex sites, so that students develop an expertise on a particular aspect of the site—thereby becoming a resource for their peers throughout the project timeline.
Students as co-curators of subject content
For subjects organised around a set of readings or other media, student-led teaching could translate into giving each cohort of students the opportunity to decide which content is most relevant or interesting to them. In one example, the teacher decides on a broad theme for the semester, and then the students are tasked with curating content under that theme. The co-curated list can then be organised further by asking students to select from sub-lists organised by sub-themes. Not only can this process help students feel more involved in their learning, the initial exploration can assist in their critical engagement with the broader theme.
Students as teachers in the community
For subjects that include project-based learning component with community stakeholders, student-led teaching might involve students adopting a role of “teacher” within the community. This could involve presenting their own work or designing participatory activities like workshops. Such examples can provide students with opportunities to adopt roles they would not otherwise in an academic setting, potentially contributing to skill development and deeper engagement.
Students as source of feedback on learning/progress
Students providing feedback to one another (either formative or summative) is an example of student-led teaching. Although casual or informal feedback from peers can obviously occur at any time with or without teacher encouragement, the experience takes on even greater meaning when students start to value peer feedback as much as they do feedback from their teachers. For teachers, realising this achievement in a constructive manner can mean implementing certain structures, including assessing peer feedback itself as a way of demonstrating its value.
References
- Iversen, A.-M., Pedersen, A. S., Krogh, L., & Jensen, A. A. (2015). Learning, Leading, and Letting Go of Control: Learner-Led Approaches in Education. SAGE Open, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015608423
- Purkarthofer, E., & Mäntysalo, R. (2022). Enhancing Knowledge, Skills, and Identity Development Through Collaborative Student-Led Learning: Experiences With the Gradual Empowerment of Students in a Planning Studio Course. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X221118599