Student Collaboration in Higher Education: Working, Thinking, and Reflecting together

Talk by Renae Acton.

Collaborative approaches to learning in higher education are often viewed as a way of developing graduate outcomes related to communication, teamwork, and civic awareness. This talk will explore two examples of student collaboration in universities, one from Australia and one from Denmark. Working with interview data from the empirical cases, the presentation will examine a suite of benefits, challenges, and outcomes of collaboration from the perspectives of students and graduates. In combination, the findings of the studies suggest that the complexities and joys of collaborative learning simultaneously support professional and personal development and are seen as more than simply a way of realising generic social skills as competencies for employment. Some of the implications for inclusive collaborative spaces that value plural perspectives in university learning will be discussed.

With completed university-focused PhD and postdoctoral projects, Renae Acton’s research inquires into the materialities of teaching and learning, inclusive and emergent curriculum, educational policy and outcomes, and interpersonal relations within higher education.