On June 11, 2024, Melissa Wright, Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Pedagogy, published new research in Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education titled, “The Hard Work of Happy Accidents: The Origins and Future of Pedagogical Partnership at Barnard College.” The piece, featured alongside other research articles on this topic across different universities, focuses on her role at Barnard and creating the Student Learning Assessment Fellow program, the College’s pedagogical partnership model. In the inaugural two years of the program, these Fellows conducted mid-semester feedback sessions, gave feedback on rubrics and assignments, and supported the analysis of relevant student learning and experience data.
In the article, Wright gives a detailed overview of the birth of this program at the College, how it allowed her to bring something she was passionate about to Barnard, and presented the opportunity to connect with the administration and learn more about their passions and leadership values. At the end of the essay, Wright also introduces the program's new name, the Learning, Engagement, and Assessment Fellow (LEAF) program, which now supports semester-long student-faculty pedagogical partnerships as well as shorter-term consultations around classroom facilitation and assessment.