A part of 4.2 Inquiry on Teaching and Learning Poster + Talk
Kaitlyn Harris, 3rd Year Student, English
Paige France, 2nd Year Student, Studies in Life Sciences
Christopher Eaton, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy
This session will reflect on an experiential learning opportunity that invited students to join a faculty-run academic publication as reviewers and editorial assistants. For the past two years Writing for University and Beyond, has involved students in the publication experience.
We report on how the experiences students had with this publication translated to other parts of their academic and professional lives. The results stem from an autoethnographic inquiry that involved two students and one faculty member. During the session, we will discuss results from our research that was framed around two questions:
- How might learning beyond the classroom enhance the undergraduate experience and help students develop skills and work towards their goals?
- How might universities encourage more authentic learning through experiential learning for undergraduates?
To answer the questions, we will provide an overview of the publication experience. Then, two students will discuss their experience and explain how it has transferred to other activities they participated in.
Our research demonstrates how experiential learning has provided students with an experience that translates both implicitly and explicitly to other facets of their careers. The students—one from the sciences and one from the humanities—have used their experience to coordinate ventures in creative writing and scientific inquiry. They also draw on this journal experience to support a host of students.
The success of this experience prompts us to consider how more learning beyond traditional course/classroom structures may benefit students going forward. It is an excellent time to reflect on some of the taken-for-granted assumptions about classroom learning and reimagine how learning may provide students with more authentic learning experiences they can apply to other activities they pursue.
This is such a great experience for your students. I wonder if there’s an opportunity for connecting with other student journals across UofT to share experiences and collaboratively grow experiential learning opportunities for student editors.
Hi Alison,
That’s a great idea! It’s does fit with one of the journal’s long-term goals. We’re scaling up to start a fellowship program for students, and the goal is to both evaluate student experience and develop a guide that can support similar opportunities. Once the guide is complete, I plan to make myself available to support similar initiatives.