Being an Educator in Practice: When Students Become Part of the Learning

Lubna Siddiqi
3 days ago
7 min read

In my previous post, I reflected on my journey towards becoming an educator and how, for a while, I had moved away from the approach to teaching and learning that had shaped me over many years. Returning to that approach was one thing. Putting it back into practice in the classroom was another.

I went back to the flipped classroom approach and started treating my students as what they were: adult learners who already brought knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences into the classroom. I gave them greater freedom to explore concepts, find examples and bring what they had discovered back into class.

The students were brilliant!

They found concepts and perspectives that I had not introduced to them, and sometimes they presented concepts that even I did not know. I found myself learning more about the content I was teaching because of what they were bringing into the classroom. For me, that is part of the joy of working with adult learners. I may be the person teaching the unit, but that does not mean all knowledge in the classroom has to come from me.

Connecting Learning with Their Careers

I also wanted students to connect what they were learning with what they might actually do professionally. The career task gave them an opportunity to think about the roles they might want, the knowledge and skills those roles required, what they already brought with them and where they might still need to develop. I did not want assessment simply to test whether students could reproduce what had been taught. If students were preparing for professional careers, I wanted them to begin thinking and acting like the professionals they were preparing to become. This thinking was also reflected in their first group assessment.

From a Group Presentation to a Boardroom

I did not want the usual group presentation where students divide the slides between themselves, stand at the front and individually present their allocated sections.

We have all seen it. One person presents their slides, says some version of “I will now hand over to my colleague,” and the next person begins. Each person effectively gives an individual presentation within something we call group work.

I wanted something different.

The students had to act as senior executives or board members and make decisions. This meant thinking about the responsibilities senior professionals have. Senior executives cannot simply describe a problem and walk away from it. They have to consider the available information, listen to different perspectives, understand the implications and make decisions. The students were given five questions that they needed to address, but they could not simply ask those questions directly or put them on their slides. They had to understand the issues well enough for the answers to emerge naturally through their role-play, discussion and decision-making. During class, I gave them the freedom to work through the task together. I moved between the groups, listened to their discussions, asked questions and guided them when they needed me. Some students did much more with that freedom than I had anticipated. Once they realised that they did not have to reproduce a conventional presentation, they began exploring what else they could do.

AI was also available to them as a learning tool. I do not believe we can teach students as though AI does not exist. My role was to guide them in using it carefully while ensuring that they still understood the concepts, applied their knowledge and made their own decisions.

Then the Computer Crashed!!!

Assessment day arrived, and the University's computer system crashed. For a while, the technology threatened to interfere with everything the students had prepared. We managed to get things fixed, everyone adapted, and the assessments went ahead.

The students did exceptionally well!

I want to emphasise that because the achievement was theirs. I had provided them with the tools, guided them in using the system and facilitated their preparation. They were the ones who took what they had been given and made something of it. I was also struck by how supportive they were of each other within their groups. They listened to one another, responded to what others were saying and helped each other when needed. They were not simply waiting for their individual turn to speak so that they could complete their part and receive their mark.

They were working as a group.

I had used a similar activity with a previous cohort, but the response from this cohort was different. They were not as receptive to the freedom they were given like this current group; willing to participate, explore and engage with each other. Most were also able to communicate comfortably in English, which made interaction easier. That made teaching and learning more enjoyable for me too. The educator can create the opportunity, but students also contribute to what happens in a classroom. When they are willing to participate, question, disagree, laugh, explore and take an idea somewhere unexpected, learning and teaching becomes fun. This cohort did that!

Sometimes I Need to Become the Lecturer

Being an educator does not mean that I never lecture. There are times when I need to become the lecturer, particularly when I am teaching employment law. Students need me to explain legislation, legal principles and how particular laws work. Once I have explained them, however, I want students to do something with that knowledge. I use real-life examples and ask them to think about their own countries and their own experiences. I also hold debates and allow the discussion to develop rather than always deciding in advance exactly where it should end.

Recently, while teaching the Equality Act 2010, I asked the class a question:

Why should women be paid equally?

The debate was interesting. The discussion moved from equality and discrimination into human rights and religion. This became an opportunity to discuss the commonalities in what being a good human being entails. We talked about inclusion, tolerance, respect and honesty. The discussion about honesty then led us to third-party assignments and academic integrity. A conversation that began with employment law had travelled much further, but it was still connected to what we were learning.

After the class, one student sent me a message on Teams:

“Your today's class Masha'Allah great. Specially your explanation about discrimination and about God. I really liked it.”

Other students have told me that in some classes they wait for the sessions to finish, whereas in my class time flies and they do not realise that it is already time to go home. They have also told me that they learn through exploration and appreciate being allowed to use AI carefully.

What a joy it brings me as an educator when students say things like that.

Their enjoyment also makes teaching enjoyable for me. Teaching and learning are not one-way processes. Their questions make me think, their experiences introduce perspectives I may not have considered, and sometimes they bring concepts into the classroom that even I did not know. Learning moves in both directions.

Bringing Their Own Worlds into the Classroom

My students come from different countries, cultures and professional backgrounds, and I want those perspectives to become part of their learning. This is also how I approach decolonising the curriculum. Rather than relying entirely on cases and examples from the UK or familiar Western contexts, students can explore concepts, practices and laws from their own countries and then compare and critique them alongside approaches in the UK.

This became particularly relevant as we started preparing for their second assessment, a case-study problem-solving task.

I asked them to select an organisation from anywhere in the world, preferably one that was not a multinational. They then had to identify the government laws of the country in which the organisation operated and the employment laws that applied to it. From there, they had to examine UK employment law and consider what would happen if that organisation operated in the UK. They also needed to consider international employment law, including EU law.

I did not simply explain the assessment and tell them to go home and research it.

We started the search in class. They explored organisations, countries and legislation while I was there to guide them. I then asked them to write two paragraphs about what they had found. The purpose was simply to get them started. They had selected their organisation, started exploring the relevant laws and put their first thoughts into writing. The assessment was already underway before they left the classroom.

When Employment Law Becomes Real

I also showed them one of my favourite ABC reports about 7-Eleven in Australia and the exploitation of international students. The students featured in the report were working far more hours than they were being paid for and were threatened with being reported to immigration if they did not comply.

It resonated with my students.

Employment law can be taught through legislation, cases and legal principles, and there are times when I need to teach it that way. Real cases, however, allow students to see the people behind the law and what employment practices can actually mean for someone's life.

For international students, there was something particularly recognisable about the vulnerability of the workers in that story.

When Students Become Part of the Learning

Looking back at my experience with this cohort, what stands out is not one particular activity or assessment. The students explored concepts and sometimes taught me things I did not know. They brought their countries, experiences and perspectives into the classroom. They thought about their careers and worked as senior professionals rather than simply presenting slides. They debated equality, discrimination, human rights and religion. They connected honesty with academic integrity. They began researching their assessments in class, used AI carefully, applied employment law to real organisations and supported each other when things did not go according to plan.

They also did exceptionally well.

I taught when I needed to teach. I explained when something needed explaining, provided the tools they needed, asked questions, challenged their thinking and guided them when they needed guidance. At other times, I gave them the freedom to explore and allowed them to show me what they could do. Perhaps the greatest reminder for me was that teaching and learning become much more enjoyable when students become active participants in the process.

They were learning from me.

I was learning from them.

That is the classroom I enjoy being part of.