Transcript Slide 1

Conditions for a successful
first year
Mantz Yorke
[email protected]
University of Plymouth
24 February 2010
The story-line
Aspects of student success
‘The first-year student experience’: some evidence
What ‘student success’ implies for some aspects
of teaching and learning in the first year
Some key points for the first-year curriculum
Q: What is higher education for?
A: Helping people to develop as ‘effective operators
in the world’ (broadly in life as well as in employment)
… learning and skills are not just about work or economic goals.
They are also about the pleasure of learning for its own sake,
the dignity of self-improvement, the achievement of personal
potential and fulfilment, and the creation of a better society.
DfES (2003) Realising our Potential: Individuals, Employers, Nation [Cm 5810], para 4.1
Professional formation and employability are key
aspects of higher education (but not the only ones)
Capability (an implicit definition of student success)
Capable people have confidence in their ability to
~ take effective and appropriate action
~ explain what they are seeking to achieve
~ live and work effectively with others
~ continue to learn from their experience ...
Capable people not only know about their specialisms,
they also have the confidence to apply their knowledge
and skills within varied and changing situations and to
continue to develop their specialist knowledge and skill ...
Based on Stephenson (1992)
A definition of employability
[A] set of achievements - skills, understandings and personal
attributes - that make graduates more likely to gain employment
and be successful in their chosen occupations …
Developed by the Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team [ESECT]
Phrased to reflect the politicians’ instrumentalism whilst bearing
in mind the greater breadth of purpose expressed in ‘Capability’
Graduates at any level will be expected to have
developed themselves as beginning or continuing
professionals
Professional competence is complex
[The] mastery of requirements for effective functioning, in the
varied circumstances of the real world, and in a range of
contexts and organizations. It involves not only observable
behaviour which can be measured, but also unobservable
attributes including attitudes, values, judgemental ability and
personal dispositions …
Worth Butler et al (1994, pp.226-7)
Some characteristics of a professional
• Operates autonomously (albeit within limits)
• Often works collaboratively
• Demonstrates trustworthiness
• Applies both academic and practical understandings …
• … but may not articulate all of how this is done
• Works integratively, sometimes on non-routine problems
• Applies metacognition (reflection; self-regulation; etc)
• Is committed to new learning, often via CPD
• Maintains standing as a professional
Developing as a professional
Is likely to involve a significant transformation
Panel from Metamorphosen by MC Escher
Developing as a professional
Is likely to involve a significant transformation
Acquiescence
Autonomy
Kohlberg 1964
Perry 1970 (reprinted 1998)
King and Kitchener 1994
Baxter Magolda 2009
Guiding learners through the transformation from authority
dependence to self-authorship is a primary challenge for
twenty-first century higher education
Baxter Magolda (2009, p.144)
An organising framework
Much will depend on the approach taken to teaching
and learning: i.e. the inherent ‘quality’ of HE
The curriculum needs an organising framework
I offer you mine, but you may have a different one
The USEM account of employability
Four broad areas of student success that were
developed in the context of employability, but are
relevant to capability and to learning in general.
[Note that the social dimension is implicit]
Understanding
Skilful practices (subject-specific and generic)
Efficacy beliefs (and self-theories generally)
Metacognition (including reflection)
S
Skilful
practices
in context
Effectiveness
in the world,
inc. employability
E
Personal
qualities,
including
self-theories
and efficacy
beliefs
Subject
understanding
Metacognition
U
M
USEM
Is supported by both theory and empirical evidence
• Hence there is an academic justification for it
Correlates with ‘good learning’
• Much that goes on in HE is tacitly consistent with USEM
• One task is to make the tacit overt (e.g. develop metacognition)
• There already exists a substantial base on which to build
Is permissive rather than prescriptive, i.e. is flexible
• It can accommodate disciplinary differences
• It can accommodate differing kinds of student
Is not a knee-jerk response to ‘employer demand’
Some evidence from the
University of Plymouth...
... and, later, elsewhere
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
Arts (527)
Educ (340)
H&SW (616)
Sci (754)
SocS&B (538)
Tech (384)
4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
Teaching
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Assessment
Ac Supp
Org&Man
Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
Q10 Q11 Q12
Q13 Q14 Q15
Lrn Res
Q16 Q17 Q18
Pers Dev OvS
Q19 Q20 Q21
Q22
Now a short intermission...
Q1 What inferences about the students’ first-year
experience can you draw from the survey data?
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
Arts (527)
Educ (340)
H&SW (616)
Sci (754)
SocS&B (538)
Tech (384)
4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9
Q10 Q11 Q12
Q13 Q14 Q15
Q16 Q17 Q18
Q19 Q20 Q21
Q22
Q2 Are there any aspects of the experience that are
missing from the survey that would be significant
for the first-year experience? If so, what are they?
[NB Health & Social Work asked the set of practice-relevant questions
that are not shown on the slide.]
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
Arts (527)
Educ (340)
H&SW (616)
Sci (754)
SocS&B (538)
Tech (384)
4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9
Q10 Q11 Q12
Q13 Q14 Q15
Q16 Q17 Q18
Q19 Q20 Q21
Q22
Progression
Faculty
N ineligible to progress (%)
Arts
50 (5.07)
Education
20 (6.29)
Health
71 (8.00)
Science & Technology
79 (3.78)
Plymouth Business School
48 (4.76)
TOTAL
268 (5.00)
No clear correlation between ineligibility to progress
and overall satisfaction
H&SW Tech
3.89 3.92
Arts Sci SocS&B
4.06 4.09 4.11
Educ
4.30
Five angles on the first-year experience
1. Transition
2. Induction / Rules of the game
3. Motivation and engagement
4. Formative assessment
5. The social dimension: staff/student, student/student
1 Transition
Aspects of transition
• Choosing a programme and an institution
• New-found freedom
New found freedom
I was amazed by the ‘big city’. I started clubbing regularly,
took more and more drugs, became increasingly more ill,
lost weight, became paranoid. I messed up in a very big way.
One minute I was on top, the next rock bottom. I came from
a cushioned background and believe if I had maybe waited
a year or two and learnt more about the reality of life, then
it would have been a different story.
Student reading joint Arts and Social Science, in Yorke (1999, p.32)
Aspects of transition
• Choosing a programme
• New-found freedom
• New environment (especially for international students)
• New kinds of demand
• Need to develop autonomy in learning
2 Induction / Rules of the game
Making the ‘rules of the game’ explicit
• HE is for many a different kind of experience
The main reason for leaving university was the vast contrast
of teaching styles between university and college. […]
Male, U21, Humanities, Pre-1992 university, UK
What’s the game?
Frank:
In response to the question, ‘Suggest how
you would resolve the staging difficulties
inherent in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt’, you have
written . . . ‘Do it on the radio’ . . .
Rita:
Precisely.
Frank:
Well?
Rita:
Well what?
Willy Russell: Educating Rita, Act 1 Scene 4.
Making the ‘rules of the game’ explicit
• HE is for many a different kind of experience
• Expectations are different (and grades may be lower)
• Self-directed study
• What might once have been OK may not now be OK
• Plagiarism
60
Data from UK FYE survey
50
(In all the histograms, the ‘desirable’ end
lies to the right)
Percentage
40
Staff made clear from the
start what they expected
from students
30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
60
50
Percentage
40
From the moment I enrolled
I was helped to get off to a
good start, academically
30
20
10
0
3 Motivation and engagement
Motivation and engagement
Motivation
level
Engagement
level
High
High
Moderate
Low
Teaching
approach
Low
Boredom
2003 YFCY findings … suggest that many remain disengaged
from their coursework. Over 40% of the sample reported
“frequently” feeling bored in class …
Keup & Stolzenberg (2004, p.15, emphasis in the original)
Proportion of lectures seen as boring
None
Some
Half
Most
All
2% of respondents (N=211)
39%
29%
27%
3%
Mann & Robinson (2009, p.250)
Teaching methods, ranked by boredom
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Laboratory work
Computer sessions
On-line lecture notes
Copying overheads in lectures
PowerPoint without handout
Workshops
Video presentations
Group work outside lectures
PowerPoint with handout
Seminars
Practical sessions
Group discussions in lectures
Mann & Robinson (2009, p.250)
Most boring
Least boring
Interpret with care!
50
Have not done
background reading
40
Percentage
Data from c.6900
1st yr FT students
30
20
10
0
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
50
Have done more
than the specified
reading
Percentage
40
30
20
10
0
50
Not as motivated
as I should be
Percentage
40
30
20
10
0
Encouraging motivation
thx heaps 4 ur motivation email  Chih (Week 11 Sem 1, 2003)
I just would like to say thank you for all those emails that you have been
sending to us during the semester. They are very motivational,
encouraging, funny and interesting. Being a mature age student and from
a non-English speaking background I have experienced some moments
when I thought that [it] was too hard and impossible to continue
my university studies. However, I am still here and looking forward
to the end of semester. Once again, thank you very much.
Your encouraging words really helped me a lot. Maryana [19/05/03]
Kift (2004)
Strike whilst the iron’s hot
The potential for enthusiastic engagement in the curricula should
be harnessed in the critical first days of the first weeks of the first
year, thereby promoting a sense of belonging, so often missing
for the contemporary learner.
Kift and Nelson (2005, p.229)
Promoting motivation
The assignments were fascinating, they made me think about
where I am really heading with my studies and making a career
in science.
This unit made me think more than any other unit I have ever done.
In my five years at uni., until this unit, I haven’t had any
assignments that made use of my problem solving skills! Thanks!
It made me think and formulate ideas which I have never done
extensively before in three years of uni.
Meyers et al (2004)
Q: Do your curricula generate feedback like this?
But what type of curriculum?
The holistic nature of learning suggests a clear need to rethink
and restructure highly segmented departmental and program
configurations and their associated curricular patterns.
Curricula and courses that address topics in an interdisciplinary
fashion are more likely to provide effective educational
experiences than are discrete courses accumulated over a
student’s college career in order to produce enough credits for a
degree.
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005, p.647)
4 Formative assessment
Formative assessment (feedback and feedforward)
Vital for learning
Consistently seen as problematic in UK HE
• Quality Assurance Agency reports
• National Student Survey
• University of Plymouth Survey
First-year students less positive in Australia than in UK
50
40
I have received detailed
comments on my work
Percentage
Data from UK FYE survey
30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
50
Feedback on my work
has helped me in my
learning
Percentage
40
30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
50
Feedback on my work
has been prompt
Percentage
40
30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Feedback (and feedforward)
Vital for learning
Consistently seen as problematic in UK HE
• Quality Assurance Agency reports
• National Student Survey
First-year students less positive in Australia than in UK
Even when feedback is provided
• students may not recognise it as such
• they may not act on it
• in part, curricular structures may be to blame
Slow feedback
The feedback on my assignments comes back so slowly that
we are already on the topic after next and I’ve already
submitted the next assignment. It’s water under the bridge,
really.
I just look at the mark and bin it.
Collected by Graham Gibbs
I found that I did not learn anything from my mistakes as I was
never told what they were.
Misko and Priest (2009, p.15)
The need for feedback
Over 60 percent of all institutions collect and report midterm
grades to first-year students, thereby giving them an important
source of feedback on their academic performance. Some
educators would argue that midterm feedback is too late …
Barefoot, in Upcraft et al (2005, p.55)
I found having large blocks of work without assessment
difficult – you don’t know if you are grasping it or not until
exam time! Assignments weekly would be better from my
point of view.
Female in her 30s, pursuing a science-based Foundation Degree programme
The need for feedback
The less individuals believe in themselves, the more they need
explicit, proximal, and frequent feedback of progress that
provides repeated affirmations of their growing capabilities.
Bandura (1997, p.217)
Don’t leap to blame the victim!
See Hrabowski (in Upcraft et al, 2005, pp.130-1) for an example of
a Chemistry department’s realisation that poorly-performing
students needed more in the way of feedback
Supportive feedback
Students observed that feedback was given in such a way that
they did not feel it was rejecting or discouraging …
[and] that feedback procedures assisted them in forming
accurate perceptions of their abilities and establishing internal
standards with which to evaluate their own work
Mentkowski and Associates (2000, p.82)
Note the significance for the development of metacognition [M]
5 The social dimension
We think it is too impersonal, it’s not sufficiently
interactive … the student experience can
considerably be improved …
Alan Gilbert, President, University of Manchester
On BBC Radio 4 ‘Beyond Westminster’, 15 August 2009
A socially-aware pedagogy
If contemporary students cannot (or choose not to)
attend campus other than for formal sessions, then
they miss out on the social benefit that can accrue
from HE.
The social may have to be deliberately accentuated
in curricula in order to generate ‘belongingness’ and
informal networking.
Diversity in the student body strengthens the point.
Contact with academic staff
Importance widely acknowledged,
also value for money considerations
Selected influences on student non-continuation, UK
Mid-1990s
left
2005 poss
leaving
2006-07
left
Programme not as expected
1=
2
1
Teaching issues
5
3
2=
Lack of contact with staff
8
6
4
Influence (ranked)
How to make best use of an expensive resource?
60
50
40
Percentage
Data from c6900
1st year students
in the FYE study
30
20
The staff with whom I come
into contact are friendly
10
0
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
60
50
Percentage
40
30
20
At least two members of the
academic staff know me by name
10
0
Poor staff/student contact
I felt quite isolated in terms of studying. Lecturers spoke
during lectures and then would leave the room, with no time
for questions.
During my entire first year I never once met my personal tutor.
There seemed to be no interest in students’ personal needs.
I did NOT enjoy my experience what so ever, due to the lack of
support from staff. I was never introduced to my personal
tutor and felt like a number – not a person in a new
[overwhelming] environment. Not one of my tutors spoke to
me as an individual …
Staff/student relations – negative comments
(FYE survey)
Having a poor seminar tutor, who never seemed to get
to know us, and never listened. Too many tutors for each
subject, as they change after the 1st semester.
Hating the teaching staff as they are unhelpful.
Be treated like I am 12 years old.
Communication with teachers, you can never find them,
unless email them, not knowing who to ask help [from],
not know where or who to get assignment and exam grades.
Students’ write-in comments:
a statistical summary
(From the FYE survey)
First-year experience – positive comments (FYE survey)
Making new friends
Teaching-related
Independence
Social facilities
Personal matters
Resources & facilities
Induction
Accommodation-related
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Percentage of 5346 who commented
40
45
50
So...
Q3 On the evidence presented, and on any other
evidence that you have, where might you focus
efforts on enhancing the first-year experience?
[The thrust of the question is on the student experience rather than on
questionnaire ratings.]
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
Arts (527)
Educ (340)
H&SW (616)
Sci (754)
SocS&B (538)
Tech (384)
4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9
Q10 Q11 Q12
Q13 Q14 Q15
Q16 Q17 Q18
Q19 Q20 Q21
Q22
First-year curriculum: some key points
1 Address needs of students. In the first year these are
arguably more about learning to learn in higher education than
anything else (as far as the cognitive is concerned)
2 Acknowledge students as individuals
3 Learning through as well as about the subject
4 Teaching for engagement. Not a simple continuation
of school-based study: HE is different
5 Group-based study can
~ develop the social and ‘soft’ skills that are valued
in ‘the world outside’
~ help in forming friendship networks
6 Assessment, especially formative
And one more
7 Don’t think it’s all done if the first-year students pass