Students taking responsibility for their own learning process

'Sharing TU Delft TR practices: co-creating and positioning'

Friday 8 December two Delft colleagues shared their experiences on having students take responsibility for their learning. Paula Hueso from the Reflective Engineer team presented three cases were students were co-creating elements of the learning and teaching environment with the teachers. Paula made the point that student ownership improves when students are not only part of the co-creation process, but also experience themselves the outcomes of that process. The cases focused on the co-creation of [i] the learning objectives and a rubric, [ii] the Automata, Computability and Complexity course design, [iii] a Code of Conduct. Paula gave us two important messages:

• Do not underestimate the importance of the facilitation of the co-creation process. It might seem obvious that students and teachers themselves should be able to do this, but practice showed that a ‘neutral’ facilitator is much more than a nice-to-have.
• The co-creation process worked much better when the university teachers were better and more careful listeners.  

First year bachelor Industrial Design Engineering design project coordinator Silje Rikoll Dehli gave a presentation about the professional development approach in the IDE bachelor program. Each design project has a learning objective in relation to professional development and identity. In one of the exercises the students were asked to develop a position collage illustrating the kind of designer the student would like to be(come) including a personal learning objective and action point to develop in that direction. The idea is that they become more aware of the values, interests and capabilities they actually have now and will be more motivated to look (themselves) for knowledge and skills that are in line with this position. By introducing this already at the start of the programme students are confronted with their motivations and curiosity (or the lack thereof) and are able to use this early on to take responsibility for their own learning. Some challenges and observations Silje shared:

• Thinking about what kind of designer or engineer one would like to become is very challenging for most students entering university. Educational tools and methods should aim at making possibilities and capabilities explicit and concrete. What works well is to integrate the reflection moments with the content and skills of a course and to avoid the term reflection in communication with students. 
• Bringing in designers/engineers from practice to engage with students in class is very important and inspiring. Real world examples and experience add to students understanding of possibilities and illustrate how relevant the knowledge, skills and the nature of the projects students are working on are in practice.