In December 2021, the Journal of Criminal Justice Education published a new article, entitled: “Enabling Student Participation in Course Review and Redesign: Piloting Restorative Practices and Design Thinking in an Undergraduate Criminology Programme”.
The purpose of the article is to present findings from a project that used restorative practices and design thinking to enable active student participation (n = 25) in reviewing and redesigning LW380 Victimology, an optional module available to final-year Maynooth students on the BCL Law and Criminology or the BA Arts when criminology is selected as part of a double major. The project utilised restorative and design workshops to gather data and facilitate student-lecturer dialogue, and collaborative reflection and ideation. Aligning with the research on dialogue-based student feedback processes, the researchers found that students valued this process, articulated their learning experiences and the course’s strengths and weaknesses in sophisticated ways, and co-created many practical, transferrable ideas to meet future students’ needs. The project humanised participants, and aided the course leader’s efforts to empathise with students, develop their courses, and reflect on their broader teaching and student support practices.
The article was written by Dr. Ian Marder (Maynooth University Department of Law), in collaboration with Trevor Vaugh (Maynooth University Department of Design Innovation and Mi:Lab) and several research assistants (Catriona Kenny, Shauna Dempsey, Erika Savage, Ruairí Weiner, Kate Duffy and Grace Hughes), all of whom were students of Ian’s in the Department at the time of the project. The work they did is easily replicable and should be of interest to all those in higher education settings who wish to use student feedback to improve courses.
The article can be downloaded from here, or you can email Ian on ian.marder@mu.ie to request a copy.