Case in point, the first EduBadges were proudly awarded at the VU Amsterdam a month ago, making us the second university to issue this nationally recognized diploma to its students. The "Students as Teachers training" is meaningful because it enables student-teachers to teach a tutorial with self-confidence and professional skill, so that they can be deployed to a greater extent. In this way, the added value of involving student-teachers in education can be fully realized, benefiting not only the student-teachers, but also their fellow students, fellow teachers and the university.
The driving force behind Students as Teachers
Within the VU Amsterdam, the Students as Teachers project is part of the longer-running and more extensive Students as Partners project. The idea of Students as Partners is for education to once again become a shared responsibility of teachers and students, taking joint ownership of the learning process and programme. This project is led by Sjirk Zijlstra of the VU Centre for Teaching & Learning and is a response to the still untouched potential of the VU in terms of involving students in education. The Students as Teachers training at the VU has been established by Klaas de Zwaan, who is also the project manager of the national “StudentKwalificatieOnderwijs-project" (StudentQualificationEducation-project). This is a partnership between universities, higher education institutions and the government and it aims to introduce students to teaching in a responsible and professional way.
"The idea of Students as Partners is for education to once again become a shared responsibility of teachers and students, taking joint ownership of the learning process and programme."
A win-win for everyone
Advantages for the student-teachers
Research shows that employing student-teachers has many advantages, which also manifested themselves at the VU Amsterdam. Firstly, it has benefits for the student-teachers, as student-teachers Mette Hooijbrink, Tara Rezvani Daryan and Oumaima el Ouarit have experienced. Before participating in the training, the three of them relied on intuition when teaching, what they longed for however was confirmation that they were doing it right. The training provided them with this confirmation (and thus self-confidence), but also with new knowledge and skills. Through discussion with fellow student-teachers, the self-reflection report and the peer review, they can now offer higher quality and more activating tutorials to students, and also create a safer learning environment. Through Students as Teachers, Tara and Oumaima definitely see themselves pursuing a teaching career after their studies. Mette even discovered that, contrary to her expectations, teaching is one of her passions.
