Journals (University of Staffordshire)
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The surprising truth about who engages in a non-assessed, credit-free undergraduate conference and what they present
Get PDFThis poster will discuss an annual undergraduate research conference, hosted at Keele University. Undergraduate research conferences have been found to lead to a number of reported benefits for participants, namely the development of research and presentation skills, as well as increased self-authorship and disciplinary identity. The poster will first detail what students choose to present, with 70% of all presentations in non-assessed topics of interest. As well as showing a year-on-year growth in presentation numbers each year, this poster will demonstrate that such impactful initiatives can recruit students typically underrepresented at significant levels. The conference regularly recruits BAME students, students with disclosed disabilities, international students and students from a POLAR 1 (Low participation in HE) background at levels above institutional benchmarks. With student delegates also coming from all levels of undergraduate study, the poster will demonstrate that such extracurricular conferences stand as inclusive and impactful teaching and learning practices.
REFERENCES
1. Hall, N. (2015). Delineating the Learning Process in Generating a Research Culture among Undergraduate Social Work Students: A Case Study of Student Participation in an Academic Conference. Social Work Education. 34(7), 829-845.
2. Spronken-Smith et al. (2013). Completing the research cycle: A framework for promoting dissemination of undergraduate research and inquiry. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal. 1(2): 105-118.
3. Mabrouk, P. A. (2009). Survey study investigating the significance of conference participation to undergraduate research students. Journal of chemical education. 86(11),1335-40.
4. Little, C. (2018). Utilising action research to evaluate the long-term benefits of student participation in an extra-curricular undergraduate research conference. In L. Arnold & L. Norton (Eds). HEA Action Research: Sector Case Studies. Higher Education Academy: York. Available at: goo.gl/Rm222U
5. Walkington, Hill & Kneale. (2017). Reciprocal elucidation: a student-led pedagogy in multidisciplinary undergraduate research conferences. Higher Education research & Development, 36 (2), 416-429.
6. Hill, J., and Walkington, H. 2016. Developing graduate attributes through participation in undergraduate research conferences. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 40(2), 222-237
Sharing experiences and the co-creation of knowledge through personal stories – tools for critical thinking: student perspectives
Get PDFHighlighting students’ voices and sharing personal learning experiences with peers can be useful teaching tools. We introduce student instructors and their stories to create learning processes among student instructors and the peers they are teaching. We argue, furthermore, that peer learning can add to employability skills once students are outside the university setting by enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. We are inspired by Kolb’s learning circle, but we also wish to expand on his arguments by adding sharing experiences as an equal concept in learning processes. We use our own knowledge and experiences as lecturers (Helene Balslev Clausen and Vibeke Andersson) and student (Theresa Schaltz) to set the scene for experiential learning. In our case, peer learning is based on our Creative Learning Lab, which forms the backdrop for student instructors’ sharing experiences through personal stories (Andersson & Clausen 2018). Creative Learning Lab is an initiative which puts students at the center, and which includes external stakeholders in academic work. This study uses interviews with student instructors and students. In addition, we use observations from the student instructors (represented by Theresa Schaltz). Our main findings show that, by using students’ personal stories, experiences are shared with the students instructors, and this adds to the deep learning processes and co-creation of knowledge. Our key findings show that motivation increases among students during peer learning
Boud, D., Ajjawi, R., Dawson, P. & Tai, J. (eds.) (2018) Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education: Assessment for Knowing and Producing Quality Work. Routledge.
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PhD by Published Work and “Doctorateness”: My Experience at a UK University
Get PDFIn this short article, I share my experience of completing a PhD by Published Work, an alternative PhD route, at a UK university, especially in relation to its usefulness in preparing me for a position in academia. I end the piece with some questions for potential candidates to consider
Improving student retention through enhanced academic and pastoral support: A Case Study
Get PDFThis case study presents an innovative approach to student retention. The Integrated Learner Support model brings together professional support services and programme-focused academic support to deliver ‘the team around the student’. A redesign of the University of Northampton’s Personal Tutoring system has sought to foster a sense of care and belonging; embedding this support within curricula with triage to the wider team. These developments have been informed by best practice from the University’s Faculty of Health and Society where two senior nursing lecturers have developed an additional level of student support. Initiated originally by the Subject Lead for Nursing, these roles provide emotional and pragmatic interventions to the needs of individual nursing students as they progress through their programme. Informal feedback and retention statistics suggest that in the face of rising mental health issues in the national student population, this kind of face-to-face, caring and timely support is of clear value
Extending possibilities for widening participation: a circus arts and heritage case study
Get PDFThis paper presents a circus arts and heritage case study exploring extended possibilities for widening participation, within a broader conceptual framework of the civic university (Goddard et al., 2016) and Culture 3.0 (Boehm, 2016; Sacco et al., 2018).
Recent changes to UK higher education policy reinforced the strength of universities as ‘anchor institutions’, emphasising a growing civic responsibility, embracing a university’s ability to positively change the economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of its surrounding region (UPP Foundation Civic University Commission, 2019). Widening participation is a key priority for the civic university and can no longer be limited to recruitment activities.
The Philip Astley Project offers a potential for institutions embracing an extended vision of widening participation. The work involved overlaps in teaching, research and engagement to deliver social, cultural and economic benefits. Almost 29,000 people took part in 47 activities, while more than 200 staff and students became involved in arts, culture and voluntary activities
The Hero’s Journey in Higher Education: A Twelve Stage Narrative Approach to the Design of Active, Student-Centred University Modules
Get PDFThis paper outlines and makes the case for a new, twelve stage narrative approach to the design of university modules. The twelve stages in the narrative approach to module design mirror the twelve stages which comprise the hero’s journey in myth and legend, as discussed in the work of Campbell (1993) and Vogler (1985). The purpose of designing a university module to mirror the stages of the hero’s journey is twofold. Firstly, it is proposed that the use of a narratively-focused design will lead to a greater sense of satisfaction on the part of those taking the module, because the narrative approach considers, for example, the importance of beginnings and endings, as well as the emotional journey of the participants. Secondly, the narrative approach is constructed to create module designs which are active and student-centred, thus a very strong emphasis is placed on what the students will be doing in each of the stages. Throughout the paper each of the twelve stages is explained, and an example of what the teacher and students might do in each of the stages is given. This narrative approach to module design has been constructed primarily for teachers who would like to design their modules to be more active and student centred, but who are unsure how to go about this and would like a supportive framework within which the module can be designed
Teaching with Teams: An introduction to teaching an undergraduate law module using Microsoft Teams
Get PDFMicrosoft Teams is a cloud app digital hub that brings channels, conversations, meetings, files and apps to Microsoft 365. Teams are made up of channels and channels are used to divide a Teams into topic or in this case undergraduate modules. The paper combines a practical analysis of Teams as a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) process and explains what Teams can offer educators in higher education institutions (HEIs). Moreover, the paper argues that teaching and learning with the app is located within the social constructivism paradigm of educational theory. The paper engages in a discussion about a social constructivist approach to collaborative learning. The paper examines the authors’ use of a Team to teach the Language of Law, a module on a LLB(Hons) course. The authors discuss the use of the assignment tab to facilitate PowerPoint presentations in group workshops, allocate required reading and grade formative assignments
Kyndt, E., Donche, V., Trigwell, K. & Lindblom-Ylanne, S. (eds.) (2017) Higher Education Transitions: Theory and Research. London: Routledge.
Get PDFThis is a well organised treatise despite having more than forty contributors. A minor quibble is that the title might have been more specific because the content focus is students’ transitions, rather than those of staff or, indeed, whole higher education (HE) institutions. The book enriches previous publications on the topic by going beyond the institutional and social consequences of students failing to complete their courses or being unable to find employment after graduation. It provides a balanced educational overview of the topic in which empirical case studies reveal students’ emotions and behaviours during the transition process itself. The book is divided logically into three sections and so gives equal weighting to: a) transitions into HE; b) transitions within HE; and c) transitions from HE into the workplace. It is part of a series published in conjunction with the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction and so has a European focus. That being said, it does contain ideas applicable in other settings
Middleton, A. (2018) Reimagining Spaces for Learning in Higher Education
Get PDF‘Where do you learn best?’ is the question that Middleton asks in the preface, and promptly follows with an exploration and discussion of spaces and places for different types of learning in the context of the emerging digital-social age. From the get-go he considers the learning, rather than the teaching, and thus usefully refocuses this issue from an institutional to a learner-centred one. Case studies featuring both teacher and student perspectives are utilised to introduce authentic learning (and teaching) situations and their uses of space