Emma A. Foster and Laura J. Shepherd University of Birmingham, UK

‘[W]e are committed to enabling all our students to profit from a culture of learning, aligned with our research ethos, which is based upon critical enquiry, debate and self- motivation’ University of Birmingham, 2010

[H]e was convinced that as a teacher he should:  enter a unified or integrated relationship with each learner, as what he chose to call a congruent person;  demonstrate an unconditional positive regard for the learner, accepting each one and caring for them as a separate person;  experience an empathetic understanding of the learner’s world, as seen from the inside. (Rogers cited in Cowan 1998: 143, emphasis in original)

Conducted over the course of the academic year Three aims:  To investigate whether current feedback mechanisms are meeting the needs of the students;  To investigate whether current feedback mechanisms are facilitating deep learning and effective learning strategies; and  To investigate whether current feedback mechanisms can usefully be revised to better meet the needs of student learners.

This paper focuses on the methodology of the project, specifically engaging with the processes and politics of undertaking student-centred, student-led research. 1. The context of the research design 2. How and why was the project student- centred/student-led? 3. (Tentative) conclusions

 Deep learning  Student satisfaction  Employability

 Re-presenting the student voice  3-tiered research rather than triangulation

Desirability  Bolsters the ‘student voice’ in educational research  ‘…closes the feedback loop’  Facilitates deep learning and promotes key skills  Improves employability Potential Problems  Funding  Insider/Outsider research ethics  Rigour

Teaching, in my estimation, is a vastly over-rated function. … So now, it is with some relief that I turn to an activity, a purpose, which really warms me – the facilitation of learning. When I have been able to transform a group – and here I mean all the members of a group, myself included – into a community of learners, then the excitement has been almost beyond belief. To free curiosity; to permit individuals to go charging off in new directions dictated by their own interests; to unleash the sense of inquiry; to open everything to questioning and exploration; to recognize that everything is in process of change – here is an experience I can never forget. (Carl Rogers 1993[1967]: 228-9)