In this blog, Skye Backhouse and Elliott Green, second year undergraduate sociology students, reflect on their opportunity to prepare and present their own workshops in the SPAIS unit ‘The Sociology of Gender’. This was suggested and facilitated by their module lead, Maud Perrier, with the intention of exploring how teaching fellow students can be a unique form of active learning.
It is quite well known that the act of teaching others has been proven to be an extremely effective way of enhancing a person’s own understanding of a topic (Fiorella and Mayer, 2013), and we wanted to put this to the test as students on a Sociology degree. In this post, Skye and Eliott discuss their experiences of doing this, how effective it was as a method of learning, and how it might be implemented across the wider University.
Elliot: I really enjoyed both devising and delivering my workshop, it didn’t even feel like work! In my workshop, I focused on incorporating books I had already read and enjoyed that had some relation to the module, as well as sharing my own thoughts and experiences, which I encouraged everyone to do the same.
It was pretty nerve-wracking to stand up in front of my class and give a lecture-length session, but I’m very glad I pushed myself to do it in the end. It was beneficial both to the depth of my understanding of the content, but also reaffirming and strengthening my skills and abilities, such as confidence and presenting in a way that keeps people engaged, which will come in great use for the rest of my degree, and beyond in many areas of life. It also meant that for the first time, I was able to understand what it must be like for my lecturers, which was interesting in itself!
Having such freedom of what to include in my workshop allowed me to really think about how the things I already enjoyed, such as those books, can relate to my learning. It also meant I was able to deliver learning in a way in which I would ideally enjoy it, such as my activity of creating mood boards as a way of provoking sociological thought. I think I have benefited both from being a learner and a teacher in this student-led teaching approach, and I am definitely keen for it to be incorporated more both in my own and other courses.
Skye: With support and encouragement from my lecturer, I presented an overview of feminist interviewing methods and led an ensuing discussion between my peers. I chose this topic because of a personal interest in the process of knowledge production within gender research. I found the flexibility of being able to choose what to speak about felt liberating and different from the usual structured academic expectations.
Through the workshop, students explored how interviewing techniques shape knowledge production, rather than understanding interviews as neutral sites of data collection. At one point, in a group exercise, students actively applied theory by designing their own research questions focused on gender. One group produced a comprehensive set of feminist-style questions on gendered expectations in classroom participation. This showed a shift towards questioning and interpreting real-lived experiences, rather than prioritising objective yes-no questions. The feedback I received from my peers was only positive! It seems that they really enjoyed the process of learning from other students and found it easier to engage in this environment.
Through discussing this topic with my peers, I gained further insight than I had originally found through my own research. I felt that through this process of facilitating discussions, managing timings and prioritising content helped to develop my own practical abilities. Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking process!
In sum, as students, we found the process of researching, building and delivering workshops to be incredibly beneficial, both personally and for our peers. Through this academic challenge, we deepened our own understanding of these subjects. We also believe our peers felt more open to engaging with discussion and exploring ideas in a student-led environment. We were lucky enough to receive encouragement and advice from our lecturer, Maud Perrier, a strong advocate of student-led active learning. As a result of our experiences, we champion greater use of active learning, which centralises students across Bristol University, helping to create a more inclusive and accessible learning atmosphere.
Maud: Skye and Eliott stood up and spoke in front of their peers with the right mixture of confidence and curiosity: the conversations that followed with their peers brought a lively energy to the classroom this Spring. Skye and Eliott not only designed a short lecture but facilitated group work with ease. Using social media videos of the manospohere and gender identity mood board exercises really captured the imaginations of their cohort. Students’ everyday knowledge of gender struggles created consciousness raising about how we can all resist gender norms. The work of the Educator Mike Neary and his book Student as Producer: How do revolutionary teachers Teach? Encourages us to experiment with letting go of controlling the curriculum and giving students space to experiment. I relish watching students like Skye and Elliot take up the invitation to engage with Education as a form of liberation.
References:
Fiorella, L. and Mayer, R.E. (2013). The relative benefits of learning by teaching and teaching expectancy. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 38(4), pp.281–288. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2013.06.001.
Neary, M. (2020). Student as producer: how do revolutionary teachers teach? ZERO Books.
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