Learning about learning and teaching: developing classroom consciousness and reimagining collaboration between students and staff

This paper explores what it means for university teachers and their students to work collaboratively to develop a collective classroom consciousness about learning and its relationship with teaching. It draws on qualitative data from several longitudinal case studies comprising academic staff and students who participated in two cycles of collaborative observation over a period of two academic years, as part of an externally funded project in a single faculty at a modern university in England�. In this paper, we discuss participants? experiences of identifying the foci of their observation inquiries, developing collaborative learning and teaching relationships through the project?s innovative approach to observation, along with revealing a synopsis of some of their collective discussions and reflections on teaching and learning. Counter to performative modes of understanding and evaluating teaching that have traditionally dominated the use of observation in education, the participants? experiences captured in this paper illustrate how our innovative approach to collaborative observation can provide a productive platform from which to co-develop collective classroom consciousness that can simultaneously inform and transform the learning and professional practice of both students and their teachers.