Student Engagement

implications for revalidation

Roisín Curran

Student Engagement (SE) Recent/Current initiatives

• SE strategic work stream • CHERP/SU focus groups with students prior to revalidation • HEA funded Students as Partners change programme 2012-2013 • CHERP conference Jan 2013 – Student Engagement: a catalyst for transformative change • HEA/Paul Hamlyn foundation funded What Works? Student Retention & Success Change Programme 2012-2016

Student Engagement

Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society

2010).

(

RAISE

Reference: RAISE (2010) Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student engagement. Available at http://raise network.ning.com/ . Accessed 25 September 2013

Student Engagement to Improve Student Retention and Success

The What Works? Model: improving student engagement, belonging, retention and success (Thomas, 2012)

Thomas, L. (2012)

What works? Student Retention and Success

. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation .

Building engagement & belonging

    2011-12 At Ulster 8.7% (UK 5.7%) of students leave HE in their first year of study Between 37%-42% think about withdrawing (WW phase 1)  Range of reasons

Belonging

programme has emerged as a key idea in this research Engagement develops relationships with others and promotes connectedness…

Student Engagement (SE)

 Institutional reference points • Learning and Teaching Strategy 2013/14-2017/18 • Graduate qualities • Guidelines for first year teaching • Transition policy • Principles of Assessment and Feedback for Learning

Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation?



Section B

• B2.5 • B2.7

• B2.10.1

• B2 10.2

Commentaries

Learning, Teaching & Assessment Creativity, innovation & good practice Graduate Qualities Widening Participation • B4 Modules

Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (1)

Strategic Aim 2 Key supporting objectives

To provide transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of

meaningful staff student partnerships

that engender a shared responsibility

• To develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence through

active

learning experiences with fellow students from diverse backgrounds, to engender a sense of student belonging and identity • To develop supportive partnerships and learning communities amongst and between students and staff to engender mutual respect and trust • To develop ways of working that foster students’ active engagement with their learning and career progression and values their contributions to shaping the design and delivery of programmes.

Section B2.5

B210.2

B2.5

B2.7

B210.2

B2.5

B2.7

Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (2)

To provide

linkages (1)

transformative,

what they can reasonably expect of their

high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of

meaningful staff student

partnerships that engender a shared responsibility

course and what is expected from them • To embed within the curriculum opportunities for students to develop as global citizens, socially, ethically and environmentally aware, sensitive to international contexts and cultures • To exploit opportunities within course design and programme delivery for internationalising the curriculum and the student body • To provide explicit opportunities for students to learn about sustainability, formally and informally, engaging with communities and employers.

• To develop and implement more efficient and effective methods for collecting, analysing and responding to student feedback on a timely basis.

B210.2

B4 B210.1

B210.1

B2.5

B2.7

B210.1

B2.5

B2.7

B4

Research-Teaching Nexus

implications for revalidation

Vicky Davies

Research-Teaching Nexus (RTN)



Strand 1

 Pedagogic Research (

PR

)/Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (

SoTL

) capacity building 

Strand 2

 Research as inquiry (

RAI

): comprising Research informed Teaching (

R-IT

) and Research-enhanced Learning (

R-EL

)

Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation?



Section B

 B2.6  B2.7

Commentaries

Research/scholarship informed teaching and curriculum Creativity, innovation & good practice 

Section C Staff & professional development

Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1)

Strategic Aim 1 Key supporting objectives To provide appropriate learning opportunities which are flexible, responsive to and inclusive of, the needs of students, professions and the wider community

To promote, embed and develop safe yet challenging learning environments that support active learning, through a learning and teaching ethos underpinned by current and appropriate discipline-specific and pedagogic research and scholarship, building, where appropriate, upon new and emerging technologies To promote and embed inquiry-based activities across the curricula which are designed to develop a range of generic, info-literacy, critical inquiry and/or subject specific research skills, and their transferability into professional settings and/or further study

RTN

PR SoTL

Section

RAI

B2.6

B2.7

Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (2)

Enabling Aim Key supporting objectives RTN Section To provide a supportive environment, in which innovative approaches to learning, teaching and leadership are encouraged, recognised, valued and rewarded, for all staff and students in the university

To further develop communities of practice, including students, in order to promote scholarly dialogue, and encourage and facilitate the sharing of effective practice between and within subjects and departments...

To promote and encourage professional reflection, critical thinking and pedagogic research on the student learning experience by all those involved in the facilitation of learning and teaching To increase the proportion of, and support for, staff seeking internal recognition of effective learning and teaching practice through alignment to the UKPSF To lead, encourage, support and disseminate scholarship of learning and teaching and pedagogic developments by staff and students PR SoTL PR SoTL RAI

B2.6

C C B2.6

Where now?

Engagement through partnership

    “Partnership is understood as a relationship in which all involved are

actively engaged

in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together to foster engaged student learning and engaged learning and teaching enhancement.

Partnership is essentially

a way of doing things

, rather than an outcome in itself Partnership is a

process

of student engagement

All partnership is student engagement but not all student engagement is partnership

” Healey et al. (2014. p1)

Where now?

 Healey, M., flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014)

Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education.

York: HEA  Available at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HEA_Framework_ for_partnership_in_learning_and_teaching.pdf

 In particular – look at series of

self-evaluation questions (p.6)

could develop and embed learning and teaching partnerships to support staff, students, institutions and students’ unions who wish to explore how they  E.g.

LTA

To what extent, and how are active and collaborative learning approaches embedded in student learning experiences?

 learning?



LTA RTN

How are students and staff involved in the delivery and assessment of To what extent, and how, do students and staff contribute to the development of knowledge in their subject area/professional field?

Process of Partnership

 Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership carried out 2013-14 • majority of staff and students are very positive about working in partnership to effect change •

Staff

report that their own approach to practice is changing • • More open to the student body Less likely to treat their students as a homogenous group • Becoming more reflective about their practice

 Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership •

Student

partners have reported that their perspective on HE is changing • They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues • • Enjoy problem-solving with staff They feel that this approach is breaking down perceived barriers between staff and students • Learning new skills whilst developing their own self-confidence