Transcript Lessons from the Teaching and Learning Research Programme

DEL Lunchtime Seminar
27th November 2009
Chair: Fergus Devitt, Director of
Higher Education
ESRC Placement Fellowship
Teaching and Learning Research
Programme (TLRP)
Department for Employment and Learning
27 November 2009
Professor John Gardner and
Dr Despina Galanouli
School of Education
Queen’s University Belfast
Teaching and Learning Research Programme
• Largest education research programme in
UK – £43m, 1999-2009 (TEL -2012)
• ESRC programme with funding from
HEFCE, DfES, DEL, DE etc.
• Over 100 investments including 56
research projects (22 in schools – 34 in
post compulsory education)
Teaching and Learning Research Programme
TLRP’s mission:
‘…to promote high quality research on
education, focused on improving
outcomes for all types of student and
designed to be relevant to the practice of
teaching and learning ’
Teaching and Learning Research Programme
Priorities:
• Involvement of practitioners in contributing to
and using research – relevance and quality
• Development of research capacity in the field PD for both researchers and practitioners
• Forming partnerships for sustainability
• Collaboration between disciplines and sectors.
DEL’s Priorities
• Quality of provision (inc. HE Strategy)
• Skills and workforce development
– Literacy and Numeracy
– Employability
• Widening participation in HE
Quality of Provision
(inc HE Strategy)
• Hard-to-reach adult learners are best served by
•
community-based learning provision with
support to move later to other learning
environments or employment (Gallacher et al
2005)
Improved approaches to teaching and learning
require improved understanding by HE lecturers
of VET student backgrounds (Hayward & Ertl,
2008)
Quality of Provision
(inc HE Strategy)
• Universities should have a sophisticated
•
understanding of the diversity of students’
social, cultural and educational backgrounds
(Hockings & Bowl, 2008)
Emphasizing understanding and enjoyment in FE
and HE mathematics teaching improves student
attitudes to mathematics learning, especially for
those with low GCSE achievement (Williams et
al, 2008)
Quality of Provision
(inc HE Strategy)
• Inadequate and unstable funding along with
•
over-emphasis on measured outcomes damage
learning in FE (Hodkinson et al 2005)
Attempts to improve teaching and learning must
pay heed to subject characteristics (Hounsell et
2004)
Quality of Provision
(inc HE Strategy)
• In work-based environments, the allocation and
•
structuring of work along with a high standard
of constructive feedback on performance are
crucial (Eraut et al, 2004)
FE needs to make the communicative aspects of
learning more explicit and visible (Ivanic et al,
2006)
Skills and Workforce Development
• An expansive workplace environment enables
•
•
richer learning than its restrictive counterpart
(e.g. variety of settings and challenges)
(Rainbird et al, 2003)
FE must recognize a greater range of learning
outcomes and skills as valuable (Hodkinson et al
2005)
Multinational companies are more concerned
with employee performance and personality
than with formal qualifications (Brown et al,
2006)
Skills and Workforce Development
• The assessment of students’ literacy capacity
•
should tailored to the practical contexts for
which their courses are preparing them (Ivanic
et al, 2006)
Occupational labels can be misleading indicators
of the knowledge, skill and learning experiences
of employees while increased responsibility
raises aspirations and creates more
opportunities to learn (Felstead et al, 2008)
Skills and Workforce Development
• Workplace training that merely re-teaches school
•
mathematics will not close the skills gap.
Techno-mathematical skills are rarely picked up
‘on the job’ and need to be developed explicitly
in context (Hoyles et al, 2007)
Adult basic skills programmes initiated by and
within workplaces survive the longest. Increased
proficiency requires use of the skills ‘on the job’
(Wolf et al, 2007)
Widening Participation
• Universities need to be sure about the means of
•
accommodating disabled students and upholding
academic standards. Many adjustments for
disabled students are in line with good teaching
practices for all students (Fuller et al, 2007)
Working class students show resilience and
commitment despite structural discrimination
and should not be viewed by universities as high
risk or problematic (Crozier & Reay, 2008)
Widening Participation
• Students need more financial support to reduce
•
•
the need for taking employment while studying
(Crozier & Reay, 2008)
Universities need to ensure they do not limit the
learning of students from diverse backgrounds
(Hockings & Bowl, 2008)
Policy makers need to continue their focus on
narrowing the socio-economic gap in relation to
university attendance (Vignoles et al, 2007)
Widening Participation
• An expansion of work-focused higher education
•
•
will place new demands on access and transfer
functions of dual sector institutional
arrangements (Parry et al, 2008)
More high quality work-related provision by
employers could release latent employee
demand (Fuller et al, 2007)
Widening participation – addressing attitudes
that contribute to non-participation
School of Education
Non-Participation
in HE: DecisionDepartment for Employment and
Learning,
Belfast,as
27 November
making
an 2009
embedded social
Alison Fuller
Email: [email protected]
Background to our research
• Policy and research interest in WP: persistently uneven patterns of
participation
• Target that 50% of 18-30s to enter HE (by 2010 dropped)
• 2020 target of at least 40% of working population with L4
qualifications
• Nearly 6 million workers have L3 Qs as their highest qualification
•
Demographic changes
• The problem of participant proxies
Research Aims
• To examine the extent to which HE is conceived as
within the bounds of the possible for 'potentially
recruitable' but 'non-participating' adults
• To explore how attitudes to HE and decisions
about participation are distributed across,
embedded and negotiated within intergenerational 'networks of intimacy'
Project methodology
• Stage one: desk research (lit reviews), analysis of large scale
data sets, 32 key informant interviews
• Stage two: sixteen case study 'networks of intimacy‘: 16
‘entry point’ interviews plus approx. 5 additional interviews
per network (107 in total), followed by second entry point
interviews
• ‘Entry points’ were adults aged over 21 who have attained
L3 qualifications but have not [yet] participated in HE
Our network sample
• Aged 13 to 96 (most 21-60), 60% female
• 44 (approx 40%) in total have L3 as highest qualification;
approx 30% have L4 as highest qualification
• 90% of those with L3 had vocational qualifications, most
acquired some years after leaving school
• 72% of our L3 sample in NS-SEC classes 3 and below, most
in skilled/supervisory level work
John Hanley’s
Network
Mother-in-law
Mother
Aunt
• Julie Renwick (age 57)
• Lives alone.
• Location:
isolated small town
• PT administrator
• Highest qualification: NVQ2
• Experience of HE: No
• Mary Hanley (age 57)
• Lives with partner.
• Location:
isolated small town
• PT caretaker
• Highest qualification: Level 1 shorthand/
typing/book keeping
• Experience of HE: No
• Anne Miller (age 49)
• Lives with husband and child >11 years.
• Location:
isolated small town
• PT Dental Nurse.
• Highest qualification: Level 3 SEN
• Experience of HE: No
Entry Point
Wife
• Cathy Hanley (age 35)
• Lives with husband and children
<11years
• Location: isolated small town
• PT Supermarket worker
• Highest qual: NVQ1 Retail
• Experience of HE: No
Sister
• John Hanley (age 34)
• Lives with wife and children
<11years.
• Location: isolated small town
• Boat builder
• Highest qual: CMI Diploma
• Experience of HE: No
Friend
• George Harris (age 40)
• Lives with wife and children
age <11.
• Location: isolated small town
• Section leader and Boat Builder
• Highest qualification: Level 3
• Experience of HE: No
• Jackie Hanley (age 29)
• Lives alone.
• Location: urban
• PT work and Student
• Highest qualification: Level 4
• Experience of HE: Yes
Friend
• Graham Powell (age 34)
• Lives alone.
• Location: isolated small townl
• Not in paid work
• Highest qualification: GCSE
• Experience of HE: No
The network approach
• Educational decision-making is often theorised as a deeply
embedded social practice
• Yet… often based on individual accounts
• What is the added value of network-based research?
Network-based decision-making
• Networks as sites of varying forms of social,
cultural and economic capital
• Critical nature of network characteristics (e.g.
strength and range of interpersonal ties,
shared/contested values)
• Importance of life course perspective and life stage
Key
Nature of tie
Tom
Andrews
Family
Friendship
Helen
Andrews
(Brother)
(Sister-in-law)
Strength of tie
Joanne Sharpe’s
Network
Very
strong
Strong
Weak
Very weak
Notes
Joanne
Sharpe
Peter
Sharpe
(Entry
Point)
Jane
Walker
(Friend)
(Husband)
Susan
Bryant
(Friend)
1This sociogram represents
interviewed network members
only.
2‘Nature of tie’ represents the
type of relationship between the
network members. Family ties
include immediate blood family
and constructed (married
in/partnered) members.
3 ‘Strength of tie’ demonstrates a
combination of the amount of
time, the emotional intensity, the
intimacy (mutual confiding), and
the reciprocity which characterise
the tie.
Gill Henson
(Friend)
Social Networks, Relationships & Value
“I have supported him loads and loads and loads, and Joanna
has brilliantly supporting [sic] Peter for four years
…Everything is about a team effort you know, if you think
you can just do everything in your life without accepting
any help from anyone else, then you are a fool… my
friendship with Joanna has been her supporting me in
times of need, and me supporting her in times of need.”
(Susan, friend)
Key Findings (1): Sources of advice
• No single agency has WP in HE across the life course as its
core mission
• 75% of our KIs worked with under 19 year olds, those
working with older groups focused on L2 and below
• Lack of independent IAG increases reliance on ‘hot
knowledge’
• Rosie’s experience – IAG provided through children’s
school and family learning centre
Key Finding (2): Relevance of HE
• The ‘potentially recruitable’ in our research were living
comfortable, stable lives and usually see little need to
participate in HE
• Historically, L3 qualifications have generated relatively
good returns
• Are degrees always necessary for advancement?
• Need for higher level qualifications is growing in
importance
Key Finding (3) The multi-directionality of network
influence
• Network influence is transmitted upwards from child to
parent as well as downwards
• Those with no 1st hand HE experience express ambivalence
about its value
• HE experiences within social networks critically shape the
perceptions of ‘potentially recruitable’ adults across and
within generations
Inter-generational ambivalence
“I just think there’s too many people going along
that road for the amount of work there is…I have
probably said to the boys [teenage sons] that I
think a degree leaves you with a very large debt and
not necessarily what you want to do in life, but I
haven’t suggested to them that they couldn’t do it if
they wanted to.” (Cathy’s aunt)
Key Finding (3) The multi-directionality of network
influence
• Network influence is transmitted upwards from child to
parent as well as downwards
• Those with no 1st hand HE experience express ambivalence
about its value
• HE experiences within social networks critically shape the
perceptions of ‘potentially recruitable’ adults across and
within generations
Key Finding 4: Perceived value of learning
• Generally positive attitudes towards formal and informal
learning as adults, despite often negative experiences of
compulsory schooling.
• Perceive value of self-directed and non-certificated froms of
learning in pursuit of personal interests
• Appetite for high quality, work-related and employersupported provision, and for recognised qualifications that
offer recipients tangible returns
Policy Implications and conclusions
• Limits of WP approaches which focus solely on individual
and under-estimate influence of social networks/cultures
• Need for professional information, advice and guidance for
adults that is relevant to their life stage and is accessible
• Identification with entrants to HE who are ‘people like me’
influences decision-making across and within generations
• Tapping latent employee demand for qualifications that
offer tangible returns, requires support from more
employers and availability of flexible, PT provision