“What’s a Journal?”

Ed Foster, Nottingham Trent University

Background

• Learning in higher education is a process of change/ growth/ personal development

• Increasingly-complex thinking (Perry (1981) & Baxter-Magolda, (1992))

• Developing a sense of identity (Chickering & Reisser (1993))

• Adopting class/ cultural values (civilising?) (Tinto (1993))

• To participate, students need to be able to engage from day one

• Problems with engaging– 43.7% of Maths A’ level students achieved A grade (2007) – Only need 40% to pass in the 1st year– First time in five years that grades ‘don’t count’ – 2nd & 3rd year students - ‘it’s a doss’– A’ level tutors (understandably) collude to ‘beat the system’– Subject knowledge - significant gaps in some subjects

Methodology

• Interviews conducted by two colleagues (Rebecca Bell & Sarah Salzano) during Welcome Week (1 - 6 October 2007)

• Interviews with 100 first years – 79% = 18-20 – 30% Male 70% Female – 67% had most recently studied A’ levels– 75% of respondents cited 2007 as their date of last study– Broadly the same proportions as the academic schools in the university

• Completed follow up focus groups April 2008– Still analysing data, but interesting that students now looking back critically at life in FE– Like the independence in HE– But “They keep trying to treat us like adults, but we’re not yet!”

FE Students’ Experiences

• Academic Outputs– took notes in class (99%)– worked on an assessed group project (97%)– presented in class (96%)– produced a piece of academic writing of over 1,000 words (95%)– Managed multiple deadlines (94%)

• Engaging in learning– Asked for advice from a tutor (97%)– Been shown how to reference a text (82%)*– Searched the internet for information for an assignment (96%)– Searched a library database (60%)– Read an academic journal (42%)* “What’s a journal?”

– * we don’t feel that the students fully understood the questions and will ask them slightly differently in October 2008

Hours of study

•Average contact time - 22 hours a week

•Average work outside class - 7 hours a week

•Percentage of students working part-time - 76%

Learning environment

•Small groups– Average class size 20 (range 6 - 58)

•Staff easy to contact – 89% of students found it easy to talk to tutors outside class time– Mobile numbers and email addresses widely available

‘There was a good relationship between students and tutors; they were more like friends’

‘Really easy.We could even contact them

late at night’

Note-taking

– 87% of respondents took their own notes in class, but usually were told what to take and when

– Note taking sometimes (but not always) guided• ‘The tutor would say “ok start taking notes now”’

• ‘The teacher would highlight which bits were important as they didn’t want students to fail’

– 88% reported that they were given handouts in class

Deadlines

•Coping with time management– 38% of respondents stated that they had

struggled with their academic workload in FE

•Tutors helped by creating ‘false’ deadlines– Broke up tasks for the students so that longer

assignments had lots of stages

•Responsibility owned by teachers not students– Reminded students of deadlines

‘It was due to my own time management

skills’’

‘They would break up deadlines for you,

e.g. introduction by this date etc.’

‘Teachers helped you

keep track of everything’

Submitting drafts

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Unlim

ited

Onc

e

Twice

Thre

e tim

es

Four

tim

es

No. of timesstudents couldsubmit workprior tomarking

90% of students were able to submit drafts

Use of feedback

• Feedback is predominantly instructional, not developmental– Specific instructions about where to

improve

• Feedback is used primarily to improve the piece of writing in hand

– No conception of taking it forward to the next piece of work

– At odds with the HE system

“You used feedback if it was on a draft

but otherwise you didn’t because it was aboutone piece of work”

‘They would write down what needed changing

and then they would talk it through with you too.’

“In all honesty, they virtually wrote it for you”

Conclusion

• Many surface features of learning at FE & HE similar– Similar hours, learning experiences, written assignments

• But there are profound differences– Contact with tutors– Guided note-taking– Ownership of deadlines– Draft submission – Concepts and use of feedback

• These differences need acknowledging and addressing by staff teaching first year students

What are we doing next?

• Repeat exercise with slightly modified questions– In particular, attendance monitoring– What other questions/ areas ought we address?

• Academic Writing in the First Year: Symposium– Tuesday 16 September