Transcript Tools for Transition What do students want and need? The University of Greenwich Wall planner project.

Tools for Transition
What do students want and need?
The University of Greenwich Wall planner project
Introduction
What is important to and for students, in the first weeks
at University?
clear useful information
having their timetable fixed
getting started on their courses
knowing when their deadlines are
knowing what is expected
getting to know their tutors and get support from them
engagement with other students
feeling secure and feeling they belong
having help when they need it
being able to balance study / work / personal / family demands
developing independent learning skills
being self-diagnostic and pro-active
being equipped for employment
Transition and tools
Understanding transition:
Theories of and metaphors for transition
Rites of passage; journey; separation & attachment
• the big leap
• the long leap
• small steps
Cook & Rushton (2008); Keenan (2006,2009) Tinto (1993); Youell & Bell (2010)
UoG Wall Planner project
• Transitions in time management
• white rabbits
lateness
bizarreness
“…….the culture shock of independent learning is often the
most challenging because the fact that they are not being
nagged and chased about coursework, leads many students
into a false illusion of freedom; they do not allow themselves
enough time to research their coursework and as a
consequence experience the stress of trying to manage a
bottleneck of coursework deadlines.”
Andrew Sinclair, Study Skills, University of Greenwich
white rabbits….
“These are just a few of the sort of problems students complain of:
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Oversleeping/getting up and getting to lectures on time
Finding the time to study and how to study
How to find information
Selecting and evaluating information
Managing deadlines (they generally come all at once)
Prioritising work
How to give themselves enough time to write
Procrastination
Perfectionism.”
Andrew Sinclair, Study Skills, University of
Greenwich
UoG Wall Planner project
Context and origins
Development process
Students’ perspectives
Why they need a Planner
What they would gain
Why not use an alternative?
Meeting students’ wants and needs
A wall planner for:
clear useful information
having their timetable fixed
getting started on their courses
knowing when their deadlines are
knowing what is expected
getting to know their tutors and get support from them
feeling secure and feeling they belong
having help when they need it
being able to balance study / work / personal / family demands
developing independent learning skills
being self-diagnostic and pro-active
being equipped for employment
Discussion
Questions & discussion
What kinds of tools most successfully address
the wants and needs of students in transition?
“This sounds like an excellent idea - I am all
smiles about it….. When I do my study skills
course I still extract a promise from my
students that they will buy a wall planner and
use it.
The ones that do it all swear by it….
IDEA. ”
GREAT
Andy Gould, University of Greenwich Study Skills Lecturer
University of Greenwich wall
planner project
Sally Alsford, Educational Development,
University of Greenwich [email protected]
Jeff Blackwell, 3rd year (graduating), BA Politics,
University of Greenwich
References:
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Cook, A & Rushton, B (2008) Student Transition: Practices and Policies to Promote Retention. London:
SEDA
Foster (2010) “Induction to transition” Planning for Transition Workshop, University of Greenwich
24.02.2010 http://web-dev-csc.gre.ac.uk/conference/conf63/index.php
Lowe, H & Cook, A (2003) “Mind the Gap: are students prepared for higher education?” Journal of Further
and Higher Education, 27: 1, 53-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098770305629
Tinto, V (1993) Leaving College: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.) Chicago:
University of Chicago Press
Youell, B (2006) The Learning Relationship: Psychoanalytic thinking in Education, London: Karnac Bks.
(2010) “Developmental tasks of early adulthood – transitions in University life – an inner world
perspective” Moving Beyond Induction conference, 15.06.2010, University of Sheffield.
Bell, E (2010) “Getting connected: attachment and separation in the learning process”, Moving Beyond
Induction conference, 15.06.2010, University of Sheffield.
Keenan, C. (2006), Role of Habitus in student transition, Presentation to LearnHigher Research Symposium,
Liverpool Hope University.
Currant, B. and Keenan, C. (2009) Evaluating Systematic Transition to Higher Education. Brookes eJournal
of Learning and Teaching [online]. 4 (2).
http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/article/evaluating_systematic_transition_to_higher_education/