Working as Partners: Course Development by a Student–Teacher Team

Abstract

A first-year undergraduate course at Uppsala University has been redesigned in a process exploring different levels of student participation. In the first part of the project, the student voice was heard through interviews focusing on the role of the course in the degree program. In the second part, a student-teacher team was formed to develop course curriculum and teaching material in partnership. Among the implemented changes were new seminars focusing on conceptual understanding, redesign of all lectures to include active student participation, and a change of the course literature. The redesigned course significantly increased student satisfaction compared to previous years. Important success factors were involvement of the student organization to promote the project, institutional support, early selection of concrete development tasks, and allowing team members to choose what they wanted to develop according to their own expertise.