Discussion Wrap-Up and Next Steps

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Questions About the Discussion on Student Involvement

1) Did you benefit from this discussion? If so, how?

  • Yes, the insights into what student involvement can be and should not be were useful. Also it was good to hear the idea that not all students have to be involved.
  • I enjoyed the conversation, it was great to see how many different places people are coming from and to talk about learner leadership in that diverse space.
  • I always benefit from hearing the voices of the students. Just when we think we know what we should do, our students put us back on the right path. Their insight is invaluable.
  • Yes, I learned a lot about some really positive things in other programs.


2) Would you like to see greater student involvement in this discussion list? If so, in what ways?

  • I thought there was a fairly good balance of student and teacher voices.
  • Of course. In any discussions that we are having. As a guest or guest panel on specific topics.
  • Weighing in on where students and teachers should be co-learners.
  • I'm not sure. I actually enjoy the peer to peer discussion b/c it's most beneficial to me. Perhaps an optional list for students to be involved in but I probably wouldn't be as candid with some of my comments if students were on the list.


3) Are you hoping to increase learner involvement in professional development and/or in program improvement? If so, how?

  • At some point yes. However a bigger and more immediate challenge for me is increasing professional development in my program from the next to 0 it currently is to something a bit more consistent and helpful to instructors.
  • I am a board member for a local literacy program; I passed some emails on to the director and will help her think about how to implement the ideas on how to co-train tutors and learners
  • I printed up the list someone threw out of all the ways learners can lead in programs and shared it at a departmental meeting. I think that my organization will include learner voices increasingly as we go forward. Over the summer we may have a program design committee.
  • I would like to. I am on Family Literacy and PD task forces in my state. We havent' met yet but I plan to recommend that we have students on these task forces. Theirs are the important voices.
  • I would like to see more student input into program improvement. We have a student on our advisory board but that is not enough. Looking for ideas from students.
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Additional Comments

A) Hello! Jackie, I really enjoyed all of the discussions and replies. Also I got to see what other adult education programs consisted of in other areas other than my home state. But I really enjoyed all of the discussions. And I would love for this to be more often because it helped me a lot. I co-sponsor a support group for moms and it will give me a lot of ideas on what I can do to keep leadership involved from students that are in our support group. But I enjoyed this a whole lot and hope to keep responding!
B) I thought there were some excellent and provocative comments about student involvement in literacy program planning. We need more student input, leadership and participation in program planning.
But I thought it was misleading and a misnomer to label such student involvement as professional development. That's too heavy a burden and off-putting to most students as several respondents indicated.
The refreshing contributions were the innovative activities (panel discussions, lead questions, etc.) that could elicit student responses about their learning experience.
Teachers can and do learn from students, to be sure. But they shouldn't be set up as professional developers of tutors or staff.
It's the feedback, ownership and participation that's the focus with student involvement, not professional development.

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