Students as Pedagogical Partners Initiative

About the Students as Pedagogical Partners Initiative

Since Spring 2020, the CTL has hired a cohort of Columbia undergraduate students from Columbia College, General Studies, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to partner with and bring them into conversations about teaching and learning with faculty. 

Student-faculty partnerships are intended to promote engaged learning, create more inclusive learning environments, and transform teaching and learning at Columbia. This initiative draws on models at other universities and the literature on pedagogical partnerships. While partnering with faculty to co-create learner-centered and inclusive classrooms, student consultants increase their self-awareness and feel empowered to play an active role in their learning. Faculty learn from the student consultant’s experiences and perspectives which in turn informs their own practices in meeting their students where they are. 

Over the semesters, our student consultants have shared their experiences and reflections on being learners at Columbia with our teaching community. You can read more in the Resources Developed by Student Consultants section, and listen to them share their experiences in episodes of the Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast. 

Know of a student that would make a great consultant? Are you a student interested in joining the Students as Pedagogical Partners initiative? Email the CTL at ctlfaculty@columbia.edu.

Meet Our Student Consultants

Our undergraduate student consultants over the years have included sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Columbia College, General Studies, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. View our current consultants as well as those that have served in the past on our consultant page.

Resources Developed by the Student Consultants

The following resources were developed by the CTL’s Student Consultants as they reflected on their experiences with learner-centered teaching, active learning strategies, inclusive teaching and learning, the transition to remote learning, and online and asynchronous practices. Click on each to learn more about their thoughts and experiences. Additionally, listen to the episodes of the Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast that feature our student consultants (Season 1, Episode 4; Season 2, Episode 7). 

Learning in the Columbia Classroom

On the Transition to Remote Learning in 2020

Learning Online and Asynchronously

What Our Student Consultants Are Saying

Below, student consultants share how their participation in the Students as Pedagogical Partners initiative impacted them as learners. 

On the power of metacognition: 

“Being a part of SAPP [Students as Pedagogical Partners] has made me more aware of the power of metacognition in learning. I didn’t realize it before, but many of the courses that I’ve performed well in were actually because I knew the material of a subject well enough to understand what/why my professor was asking a certain question (a.k.a. what skill was being evaluated). Now, especially for courses that I struggle in, I’ve been more proactive about asking pointed questions that will help me understand why my professors are posing particular questions, and the concepts they are focusing on.” 

Empowerment and self-advocacy: 

“This program has helped me to advocate for certain experiences as a student. Teachers often ask their students for feedback on what might help them to learn. I didn’t always know how to respond, but now I have a much better understanding of how to interact with those questions in order to pose feasible solutions to make my peers and my learning experience at Columbia the best it can be!”

Heightened awareness and the importance of mutual learning: 

“I learned to be more humble when thinking about my professors and what they have to do, the work they need to put in, the challenges they face (…). Creating materials and resources made me think about all the counter arguments or thoughts that my instructors could have to the student perspective which in turn made me think more in depth about their perspective. Overall, I learned that more communication and feedback between students and instructors should be common practice and that we all have a lot to learn from one another.”