Rethinking transformative education

Mara Torres Pinedo

24 October 2022

Student partners: Amanda Kartikasari, Hemant Kumar, Ismat Juma, Keneth Franco, Maria José Ascenzo

Teaching excellence and innovation in higher education often evoke images of the newest gadgets to increase scholarly performance and teaching rooms equipped with the newest technology. Sometimes, innovation and the beginning of transformative learning environments can start with subtle changes in the classroom. In this UCL ChangeMakers project we wanted to ask the experts: what would it take to create the perfect dissertation experience for students at IGP? The experts this time weren’t renowned academics or entrepreneurs focused on using the latest technology; rather, they were our very own students, reflecting on their IGP degrees and committed to new and innovative ways of thinking and working together. Generating ideas is the starting point for any innovation and by reflecting, listening, dreaming and using pen and paper to draw or plan for change the students shared their perspectives and ideas.

Collaborative learning community

Our project “The Dissertation workshop: research as a community practice”, builds on conversations at IGP’s Staff Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) meetings, where students gave us feedback on improving research methods training and the support they get during the dissertation period. With this project, we aimed to co-create a learning community that supports and provides a sense of belonging for IGP MSc students during their time at IGP, and beyond. We hoped that developing this community and identifying needs and support activities would improve their experience and development and create a more strategic relationship with the supervisory team.

At the same time, the project provided a space to act on the conviction of building a teaching practice that is in constant dialogue with students and that actively promotes the co-development of learning communities. As bell hooks would put it “When everyone in the classroom, teacher and students, recognises that they are responsible for creating a learning community together, learning is at its most meaningful and useful” (bell hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking: practical wisdom). Inspired by hooks and other critical educators, innovative teaching is about inviting students to see “the classroom” as a space of possibility: Community and active participation in the learning process can pave the way to an authentic transformative education.

How did it go?

The outcomes of this project helped to re-frame the dissertation module for 2022-23 and we are currently preparing a major redesign of the modules for all our programs at IGP. This new IGP Dissertation Module will support students to develop the knowledge, skills and management practices they need to undertake research that pushes the boundaries of our understanding of prosperity, both intellectually and practically. Students will learn academic and real-world skills necessary to design, manage and conduct problem-solving research.

The IGP promotes the idea that innovation can serve social justice and equality and that different communities have different dreams and understanding of what prosperity means. With this project we asked what prosperity and innovation would look like in a student’s dissertation module; while reflecting on the challenges and opportunities to nourish equity and inclusion in their learning journey. The project engaged well with the ethos of the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) and its commitment to transdisciplinary approaches to create more prosperous futures for all.

To check the results of our evaluation and prototyping workshop please click here.

Mara Torres Pinedo is an Associate Lecturer at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP). She has lectured and provided teaching assistance on the MSc Global Prosperity, MSc Prosperity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as on the BA of Arts and Sciences (Urban Inequalities and Global Development) and BA Geography (Human Ecology and Urban Political Ecology) at UCL. She is co-founder and co-lead of IGP’s Writing and Assessment Support Labs.

For more information on the project contact Mara at mara.pinedo.14@ucl.ac.uk