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The collaborative nature of World Café discussions makes it an excellent method to bring together students from different year groups to explore issues related to learning and teaching so that the perspectives of students at different stages of their studies can all be taken into account. It is also a really effective means of bringing together lecturers and students to work collaboratively on finding solutions to teaching-related problems as the nature of the discussions are non-hierarchical in nature.
The issue at the heart of this event was that many students do not complete formative assessments and many others do so with a lower level of effort than they would a summative assessment. Students from the three undergraduate levels were asked questions that identified the barriers to completion of formative assessment, at all or with comparable effort to summative assessment, and explored measures that could be taken to overcome these barriers and make meaningful completion of formative assessment more likely.
Many students find essay writing difficult to master and it is clear to markers that it is often lack of essay writing craftsmanship that limits success in essay-based assessments rather than lack of substantive legal knowledge. This event explored the challenges that students face when faced with an essay question and asked participants to work together to formulate possible solutions and to identify the sorts of support that they would find beneficial to improve their essay writing skills and increase their confidence in their ability to write an effective essay.
These projects were funded by the University of Surrey Learning and Teaching Fund.