Students as Producers: Spaces for Learning

This paper focuses on authentic and problem based learning, through a student as producers project to design a Library learning space. The brief was to provide students with an authentic experience to replicate industry practice. The students worked collaboratively in small practice teams, to produce designs for the Library postgraduate study rooms. This involved surveying the space, analysing the user requirements and producing design solutions. They presented to the client and received feedback on both their design and presentational skills, thus assessment for learning underpinned the approach. Students developed both discipline and more general employability skills such as team working, problem solving and professional presentational skills.
This design project follows a relatively standard practice workflow. However, when examining the process it fulfils many of the latest aims for innovative and student centred pedagogy. This creative project connects teaching and research with students at the centre of the activity. The problem-based learning approach allows students to apply critical thinking and analytical skills to a tangible disciplinary problem coupled with their research skills. The student as producer approach links authentic learning with research informed teaching, which is
‘a fundamental principle of curriculum design whereby students learn primarily by engagement in real research projects, or projects which replicate the process of research in their discipline. Engagement is created through active collaboration amongst and between students and academics’ (Neary, 2011)
This paper will discuss how our teaching practice addressed the student as producer philosophy. The presentation will demonstrate the impact of this approach in terms of product, process and personal dimensions of knowledge gain.