Sheffield Hallam University Journals
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Beyond the E word: looking at students' experience of writing reflectively on Work Based Projects in the Humanities.
No full textThis study builds on the questions raised by Stibbe (2012) in the National Teaching Fellowship extended case study of the Work -based Project Humanities module at Sheffield Hallam University. Using the methodology of an enhanced module evaluation to gather qualitative student responses this paper will consider students' understanding of reflection and how this affects their learning on this module. It will examine examples of reflective diary entries and have direct comment from a second year student, Christina Anderson. It will discuss the unpublished reflective model developed for classroom use by Dr Dave Hurry drawing upon the work of Coldron and Smith (1999). The value and use of reflective writing will be discussed in the context of greater understanding of the employability agenda from both the student perspective and the prevailing attitudes within academia. Through preliminary exploration and information gathering this investigation will frame and inform a future action research study
Editorial: Higher Education Research and Scholarship Group Special Issue: Action Research in Higher Education
Get PDFEditorial piece written by Professor Jean McNiff introducing the work presented in this first issue of the Student Engagement and Experience Journal.
Reflections about research and scholarship on learning and teaching issues in higher education
Get PDFHolly Ormrod-Stebbings is currently a postgraduate student in Architecture in the Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University. In this viewpoint, she shares her reflections of the 2012 Higher Education Research and Scholarship Group Conference
Investigating students’ perspectives of learning and participating in seminars using a Bourdieuian perspective
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to articulate how a Bourdieuian perspective contributed to the insights I gained about student teacher’s experiences of seminars. The rationale for the study relates to the limited nature of students involvement and participation in seminars I experienced in my teaching. However, I found little in the student literature that problematised students’ learning context, and in particular, the way students themselves experienced and perceived this particular learning context. I undertook three in-depth semi-structured interviews with 5 teacher education students at different points of their 2nd year of study.The data highlighted the complexity and dynamic nature of this learning context. Relationships, pedagogical tools and artefacts appeared to play an important meditational role in what participants did and thought about their experiences during seminars. However, the data also suggested evidence of underlying discourses that seem to influence how the participants constructed their experiences of seminars. Good seminars seem to reflect the’ education as transmission’ and the’ good practice’ discourses that tend colour cultural meanings about teaching and learning. By using Bourdieu’s theory of practice, and in particular his theory of symbolic violence, I was able to gain a deeper insights into the meanings attached to seminar experiences, as well as new ways of thinking about my own values, practice and role as a tutor/lecturer in higher education.
Enhancing Student learning and development in cooperation with our alumni.
Get PDFThe hospitality subject team have had a long and fruitful relationship with our alumni, however this has developed in a very ad-hoc way. The development of an alumni strategy at University level was the catalyst to reflect on the relationship we have with our alumni and how this could be developed further for the mutual benefit of all. Adopting Lewin's (1958) approach of proceeding " in a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of action" we have explored the relationship we have with our alumni starting with an audit of that relationship which found that the alumni were involved with 39 areas. The results of the audit were used to develop a number of action points to enhance student learning and development by the subject team in conjunction with our alumni and identifies areas of best practice for further action. One of the key areas of transformation has been the use of alumni mentors, in particular the development of a mentoring system that offers benefits to mentors and mentees. The research also raised the interesting concept, which we are currently investigating, of (the benefits) of intra-generational mentoring, something that appears to be absent from the literature. A google search for intragenerational mentoring finds no hits for intragenerational mentoring but 221,000 hits for intergenerational mentoring reflecting the traditional concept of an older and more experienced person offering guidance to a younger person. The importance of age and experiental difference in the mentor relationship is something we are currently investigating. Some of the key outputs of the research on student learning were found to be in terms of staff development and student work experience this is being fed back into a more coherent strategy to improve the student experience
Literacy practices: using the literacies for learning in further education framework to analyse literacy practices on a post-compulsory education and training teacher education programme
Get PDFThe literacies for learning in further education framework describes nine aspects of a literacy practice that elaborate the basic questions of what?, why?, who?, and how? that are needed to understand and describe literacy practices.The framework was used to analyse two literacy practices encountered on initial teacher education courses in the post-compulsory education and training (PCET) phase of the Teacher Education Department in order to understand those literacy practices and improve them.The framework was found to be a useful tool in articulating competing and contradictory purposes in literacy practices in order to clarify them particularly in the context of the complex partnership and stakeholder relationships within teacher education. It was also useful as a planning tool to support collaborative work between the PCET phase of the Teacher Education Department and faculty-based and central support services in supporting the academic literacy of trainees.The use of the framework by other University departments should be considered in supporting academic literacy
Postgraduate student perceptions of the transition into postgraduate study
Get PDFWest (2012) found many researchers to hold the view that not much adjustment is required when going into postgraduate study, however recent literature has suggested that this is not the case (West, 2012). The article presented here confirms the latter, with evidence taken from focus group discussions with postgraduate students. The findings indicate that students experience difficulties with the transition into postgraduate study. These difficulties relate to their external commitments and with the university course itself. The findings revealed that there is much that can be done within the university to aid students in their postgraduate transition. Furthermore there is much that can be learned from conducting focus groups on student perceptions. It is hoped the findings presented in this article can contribute to further discussions into the difficulties experienced in postgraduate transition
Strengths and limitations of a learner-centred approach to teaching research methods
Get PDFEvaluating teaching, learning and assessment methods at module-level is essential, particularly in enhancing academic quality. However, module evaluations are usually designed and conducted by the University to serve their own purpose of maintaining Academic standards and often do not consider student involvement in the process of module evaluation. In our project named Students as researchers, students were appointed as researchers to gather student perceptions on a large first year undergraduate (Level 4) research module for social science students. This is a compulsory module for Politics, Sociology and Criminology single and joint honours students. This module was recently revalidated and incorporated an applied approach towards teaching research methods after feedback from previous years. The research has taken a mixed-methods approach. This encompassed an online survey questionnaire that has been distributed to all 467 first-year students on the module. To accompany this quantitative data, interviews were organized for richer, in-depth data to inform positive change on the development of the module. The findings of this work have fed into further development of this module for future cohorts. This evaluation has offered teaching staff an opportunity to reflect on our research findings and their own academic practice both within the department and within other disciplinary areas. It has also offered students an opportunity to feedback on their own student experience at module level and in doing so to enhance the quality of teaching and assessment of the module for future cohorts. It has additionally allowed student-researchers to gain knowledge of the practicalities of action research methodology and evaluation research through taking part in the project
Measuring the Impact of an Information Literacy Session
Get PDFMeasuring the impact of information literacy teaching on student research behaviour and ultimately on student achievement is uncommon in practice and has methodological problems. If achievable such a measure would guide planning and delivery of further sessions and provide further evidence of effectiveness for faculty academics and Student and Learning Services senior management. Besides immediate session evaluation no evidence of impact on formally assessed work had been undertaken before, therefore there was and is limited information, at least within the Development and Society Faculty Support Team, to confirm learning after the period of the session itself. The research looked at the development of student information literacy abilities, before and after a teaching intervention, as measured by the scholarly nature of references as a proportion of total references. The results indicated a significant improvement from a Scholarly Index of 25% in the assignment before the intervention to 76% in the one afterwards. There are still issues with the methodology as it does not isolate other factors such as other interventions and autonomous learning. However it does provide one indication of a positive outcome of the sessions and for further research
Imparting Work Based Skills on Vocational Courses, Pedagogy of Using Industrial Simulation in Surveying Education: A Study of a Model Run at Sheffield Hallam University in 2011
No full textThe paper relates to delivering vocational higher education to prospective building surveyors. Preparing students for the workplace requires inclusion of academic knowledge, workplace skills and practical vocational experience. This is reinforced by feedback from the four stakeholders to surveying education, learner, employer, education provider and professional institution. Successful delivery of learning to distinct vocational groups requires specific pedagogy. The paper analyses a realistic industrial simulation delivered to teach knowledge and skills to undergraduate building surveying students. Initial pedagogy was proposed by CEEBL, Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning. Work based skills requirements were taken from published work including leading building surveying academics and practitioners like Professor Mike Hoxley and Professor Malcolm Hollis. Data analysis is used to evolve future simulations. These become better suited to delivering appropriate learning, valid assessment and usable vocational skills, against academic, student focused and industrial criteria. An action research approach is utilised by the author to develop specialist pedagogy through analysis of outcome data and stakeholder feedback. Action research is undertaken through an approach using trial, evaluation and development. The paper concludes, simulation can be a valid tool for delivering teaching, learning, assessment and vocational skills training to surveying students and justifies further research