Three heads are better than one: Students, faculty, and educational developers as co-developers of Science curriculum

Abstract

Curriculum planning should be a shared responsibility that involves students. To encourage higher education students to actively participate in their own education, we believe in the idea of engaging students as partners in learning and teaching. We have developed an Applied Curriculum Design in Science course at McMaster University that is aimed at engaging students as co-creators of curriculum. In this course, upper-year students form partnerships with faculty and educational developers and work in groups to co-create learning modules that become key components of a foundational Science course offered to first-year students. We present a scholarly exploration of our rationale for the course, the implementation and critical analysis of the initiative, and ideas for sustaining the co-created pedagogical approaches and continued student engagement in co-creating components of the curriculum.