Enhancing the First Year Student Experience Nottingham | Jun 2014

Village Greens, Magnetic Walls & Polished Concrete

Michael GormanSenior Learning & Teaching Fellow

http://twitter.com/macgormainhttp://www.mmu.ac.uk/artschool

Contexts | Manchester • World’s First Industrial City

– “Cottonopolis” | Rutherford Splits Atom | World’s First Computer• Media City

– BBC | Northern Quarter | Diversity/Regeneration

Contexts | Manchester School of Art• Founded in 1838

– 3500 students | 14 degrees | 59 nationalities• Part of Manchester Metropolitan University

– New £35 million building programme, – Architecture; Art; Design; Media/Theatre

Alumni includes Thomas

Heatherwick, Norman

Foster, John Mayall,

Dame Julie Walters,

Steve Coogan, Sylvia

Pankhurst, Ossie Clark,

Mick Hucknall…

Genesis | Teeside

Genesis | Questions Why are Universities erecting so many “statement” buildings?

What do these buildings say to our first year students?

Why do we lose so many first year students in the early weeks of the programme (when many students are in a liminal state)?

Right City?

Right Uni?

Right Course?

(Yorke & Longden (2008)

Right Environment?

Genesis | Questions “The apparent connection between day-to-day premises maintenance and learning may need to be drawn to the attention of institutional managements. It seems that small things may make a big difference to learning: grand architectural statements may not be necessary.

We need a better understanding of the role of space in the dynamics of creating more productive higher education communities and its connections with learning and research. This should be the subject of further research. The literature throws almost no light on managerial decision-making about space issues affecting students or staff: this is a topic where further work would be useful.”

Temple (2007)Learning Spaces for the Twenty-First Century Higher Education Academy

Genesis | …and Les Watson

“We spend a lot of time trying to change people. The thing to do is to change the environment and people will change themselves.” Les Watson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Glasgow Caledonian University

JISC “Designing Spaces

for Effective Learning”

(2006)

Genesis | …meanwhile Down Under

“While research into the student experience has focused on what students do and how they engage, research into where students are engaging and how this influences their engagement is needed.”

Matthews, Andrews & Adams

(2011)“Social Learning Spaces &

Student Engagement”

Higher Education Research &

Development

Context | HE in the UK

National Student SurveyCap on Recruitment Numbers lifted

in 2014-15

RetentionAnd

Student Satisfaction = key policy concern

Change!Russell Group

to invest £9 billion in buildings

Dynamic change to secondary system

How do we manage transition?

League table rankings

Marketisation of HE in UK

Context | The Canon

Kuh (2001, 2003)Cook & Rushton (2009)STAR Project

First Year Student Experience

Kift (2004)Astin (1975, 1984)

Chickering & Gamson (1987)

Tinto (1977, 1993)

Yorke & Longden (2008)

Plus…Krause (2005)McInnes & James (1995)Pascarella & Terenzini (2005)…

Context | The Canon

Bennet (2007)Montgomerie( 2008)

Physical Environment?

Oblinger (2005)Jamieson (2003)

Webb, Schaller & Hunley (2008)

JISC (2006)

Temple (2007) HEA Report

“The literature throws almost no light on managerial decision-making about space issues

affecting students or staff”

Temple (2007)

Methodology

Understanding the physical environment

Focus Interviews with Key Staff

IncludingArchitect

Tensions!

Case Study

ManchesterSchool of Art

QuestionairreVisits

Surface

1. Navigation, Colour & Coding2. Light/Sound/Temperature3. Signage4. Permission5. Room Booking…6. Workshops7. Interactivity8. Security and Openess9. Reception

How do first year students read andinterrogate a building?

Concepts | Spaces

Contested…

BoundaryDigital (including the VLE)DialogicMaking (Writing)Savin-Baden (2010) Learning Spaces McGraw Hill

“Liminality”Acknowledge and use!

It’s about staff too!We are all learners…Co-creation of Curriculum

Submerged1. Anomie (Durkheim)2. Liminality (Savin-Baden)3. Interaction or transaction? (Berne)4. Engaging the senses…(NLP)5. Cultural capital (Bordieu)6. Communities of Practice (Wenger)…sense of belonging routed in curriculum engagement…

Explore narratives of transition

Next1. Encourage sensual exploration

(drawing/photography/film…use instagram/pinterest) 2. Open Open Open Day for First Years – permission!!3. Dialogic/Making Spaces – be explicit!4. Leave room for Boundary/Liminal spaces…5. Encourage communities of practice6. Understand where students come from7. A Learning Building (ie a Building that Learns)8. Student (and Staff) voice?9. Pilot? Engage with Architects…