the teaching- research interface - higher education · pdf filethe teaching-research...

Selection of conference papers presented on29th - 30th April 2008 at the University of Stirling

Edited by Dr Muir Houston, University of Stirling

The Teaching-Research Interface: Implications forPractice in HE and FE

Edited by Dr Muir Houston,University of Stirling

Selection of conference paperspresented on 29th - 30th April 2008at the University of Stirling

The Teaching-ResearchInterface: Implications forPractice in HE and FE

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The Teaching-Research Interface: Implications for Practice in HE and FE

Introduction 3Muir Houston, University of Stirling

1. Are Virtual Learning Environments used to facilitate collaborative 5student learning activity? Findings of an institutional evaluation.Chris Turnock and Pat Gannon-Leary, Northumbria University.

2. Using Video-conferencing to Teach in HE 12Simon Clarke, UHI Millennium Institute.

3. The experience of simulating student work experience 18through the Virtual Work Placement tool John Curry, City of Bath College.

4. New pedagogies for postgraduate research teaching: 22integrating on-line research narratives. Gordon Joyes, University of Nottingham & Sheena Banks, University of Sheffield.

5. Didactic transformation in mathematics teaching 30Alexandre Borovik, University of Manchester.

6. Connecting inclusive learner participation within culturally 36responsive teaching in Higher Education. Alison Iredale, University of Huddersfield

7. Widening participation through workplace learning 45Morag Harvey, The Open University.

8. Maintaining Motivation: implications for widening student participation 51Effie Maclellan, University of Strathclyde.

9. Hop, skip and a jump: a three step approach to supporting 57independent learnersCarina Buckley, Sarah Fielding and Judith Martin, University of Portsmouth.

10. Anyone can do it? Supporting educational research in other disciplines 64Fran Beaton and Janice Malcolm, University of Kent.

11. Excellence In Teacher Training: Impact on Teaching and Learning 70Wendy H. Jones, Bournemouth and Poole College.

12. What are Foundation degrees? 78Urmi Joshi, Hackney Community College.

13. Research? When I don’t know who I am or what I am! 85A question of Identity for HE in FE tutorsJenny Eland, Birmingham City University.

14. The Link Between Research and Education: An FE Example 91John Curry, City of Bath College.

There has been a growing interest in recent years in what has been termed the nexus betweenteaching and research and its impact on student learning. As noted by Jenkins, Healey andZetter (2007 p.33) there can be important disciplinary differences in the relationship based inpart on: the nature of knowledge within the discipline; different forms of pedagogy and variationsin delivery and assessment; and, the nature and organisation of research within the discipline.Moreover, the relationship, as the papers in this collection, based on presentations delivered atthe ESCalate Conference - The Teaching-Research Interface: Implications for Practice in HE andFE illustrate, can take many forms.

The first four papers report on research which examines the role of technology in the form ofVirtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and video-conferencing in supporting student learning.Turnock and Gannon-Leary report research which examines the role of VLEs in facilitatingcollaborative learning among students, while the paper by Clarke, examines the role that video-conferencing can play in delivering lecture material to a number of dispersed sites in a largelyrural setting. The third paper by Curry, examines research into the role that a Virtual WorkPlacement tool can play in simulating placement experiences and the impact of this technologyon student learning. This is followed by Joyes and Banks, who report on another use of virtualresources this time in the research training of postgraduate students. Using a dedicated on-linetraining resource, they explore the development of the on-line training suite and its impact onstudent learning.

The focus of the paper by Borovik is research which examines the way important concepts inmathematics are taught to undergraduate students. According to Borovik, students need a clearunderstanding of these concepts in order to successfully progress to more detailed and refinedmathematical problem solving.

The next four papers all to some extent engage with issues of widening participation and socialinclusion. Iredale reports research carried out on an innovative project which seeks toencourage social inclusion, widening participation and urban and social regeneration. Using astudent lifecycle model, Iredale outlines the development of the project and provides someevidence of its wider benefits. The paper by Harvey, takes a slightly different approach towidening participation. Reporting on research into work-based learning, Harvey suggests thatwidening participation by enabling students to use their work-based learning can be bothmotivating and rewarding. Moving back to more conventional delivery settings, MacLennanexamines research on student motivation within the context of the learning cycle and offerssome suggestions as to how teaching staff may attempt to motivate students throughcurriculum design as well as indicating some implications for widening participation. Finally inrelation to widening participation, Buckley, Fielding and Martin report on research into learningpreparation for mature widening participation entrants.

The paper by Beaton and Malcolm, reports on research which examines the effect of disciplinarycultures and its impact on pedagogical research. They report on how an academic developmentunit supports colleagues in subject departments in developing educational research and inquirywith a view to dissemination through publication as a way of raising both institutional andpersonal profiles.

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Introduction

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The final four papers report on developments in the FE sector. Teacher training in FE is the focusof the paper by Jones, who utilises an ethnographic approach to examine the impact of recentreforms in qualifications for teaching in FE. She traces the historical development of these newqualifications and outlines a research programme which seeks to understand how thesechanges have impacted on current trainees. The paper by Joshi examines the development ofFoundation Degrees and reviews the literature on work-based learning. Findings are presentedon the perceptions of both students and employers in relation to the benefits of work-basedlearning and suggestions on how to improve communication between the college andemployers are made. The role of tutors delivering HE level course in an FE environment areexamined by Eland. Issues of identity and tutors perceptions of the language of research andscholarship, commonly used in HE, are examined. Finally, Curry reports on capacity building inrelation to research in FE colleges. Curry suggests that developing a staff research culture canaid recruitment, retention and student motivation.

Muir Houston, University of [email protected]

References:Jenkins, A., Healey, M. and Zetter, R., 2007. Linking teaching and research in departments anddisciplines. York: The Higher Education Academy.

IntroductionMany authors have identified how additionalVLE functionality offers potential use of non-transmissive approaches to education inwhich there is a belief that deep studentlearning will occur, e.g. constructivist andcollaborative learning methodologies. Whilstthe authors were aware of some internal useof non-transmissive approaches to VLE use,there was little evidence to support anyanecdotally based conclusions about theextent to which such activity occurred.Therefore, the purpose of this study was toobtain information from students about theiruse of the university’s VLE, enabling theauthors to evaluate the extent to which theVLE was used as both a transmissive andnon-transmissive tool.

The study’s aims were:• To find out what students used on the VLE• To determine what students used the VLE

for• To investigate student perceptions of the

VLE

• To find out what additional informationand features students would like on theVLE

• To identify factors influencing studentusage of the VLE

MethodologyThe methodology employed in this studyfollowed principles for examining students’experiences of technology recommended forthe JISC e-learning programme and whichhave formed the basis of a number of recentmajor studies of students’ views on the useof technology in Higher Education, such asthe JISC LEX (Mayes, 2006) and LXP (Conole& de Laat, 2006) projects. The study used anaturalistic approach, recruiting studentvolunteers to use various tools that wouldprovide a triangulated, essentially open-ended approach to obtaining students’perspectives on how they used the VLE. Toobtain both breadth and depth in datacollected about students’ use of the VLE,three methods of data collection were used:questionnaire, diary and focus group.

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Are Virtual Learning Environments used to facilitate collaborativestudent learning activity? Findings of an institutional evaluation

1. Are Virtual Learning Environments used to facilitatecollaborative student learning activity? Findings of aninstitutional evaluation.

Chris Turnock and Pat Gannon-Leary, Northumbria [email protected] [email protected]

Summary Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are used extensively within higher education, primarily asan educational tool, but can also have additional functionality. There has been considerabledebate, both internal to the university and in the external academic community, about the valueof a VLE, e.g. MacLaren (2004), Sharp et al. (2005) and Conole and de Laat (2006). The focus ofthis debate is whether or not a VLE is primarily used as a transmissive tool, in which the teacherdetermines VLE content and communication and which tends to be teacher initiated while thestudent adopts a passive role (Jonassen & Land, 2000). Whilst a transmissive approach may bean important element in students’ learning experiences, there is little evidence to suggest suchusage facilitates deep learning.

KeywordsVirtual learning environments / collaborative learning / transmissive learning / student evaluation.

The questionnaire was selected to provide abroad student perspective on their VLEactivity and was completed on-line via theStudent Union web site. Design of thequestionnaire structure enabled the authorsto collect information about how studentsused the VLE from both a transmissive andnon-transmissive perspective, ease of use,support provided in VLE use, personalfeelings about using the VLE, evaluatingimpact of VLE use on their learning anddemographic data.*

The second data collection tool to be usedwas a diary that was used after thequestionnaire completion period hadexpired. The diary provided an opportunity,through adoption of an open endedstructure, for students’ accounts of their VLEuse, for example how they used the VLE andthe relationship between VLE use and theiroverall learning, to obtain detailed insightsinto student activity. The students completedthe diary for one VLE session each week overan eight week period.*

The focus group was the final data collectiontool used to enable the authors to acquireclarification about student diary data as wellas explore further the themes emerging fromdiary and questionnaire data. Discussionwithin the two focus groups covered aspectsof inconsistencies in the VLE, relationshipbetween the VLE functionality and theirlearning style as well as the actual andpotential of the VLE for studentcommunication and collaboration.*

407 students (1.67% of the university’sstudent body) responded to university widepublicity and volunteered to complete theon-line questionnaire. A purposive sample of14 students was selected to complete thediary with the same 14 students participatingin one of two focus groups. These 14students were chosen so that all nine of theuniversity school’s were represented andthat a cross-section of undergraduate andpostgraduate programme years were

included as well as international students. Quantitative data resulting from thecompleted questionnaires and diaries weresubjected to descriptive statistical analysis(Patton 2002). Qualitative data obtained fromall three data collection methods wereanalysed following the principles of thematiccoding (Boyatzis 1998). One member of theresearch team read through the transcribedinterview transcripts and generated somecategories descriptive of the interviewcontents. After discussion with colleagues inthe team, the categories derived weregrouped and refined into a thematic codingscheme. Inevitably, in this process, datareduction occurs as the research team tookdecisions about concepts and, insummarising, coding, eliciting themes andclustering responses. Such a datareduction/transforming process is referred toby Strauss (1987) as the conceptualisation ofdata. By collaborating as a team, theresearchers hoped to reduce theintrusiveness of the researchers by workingtowards a mutual interpretation of the data.Interview transcripts were revisited by theteam members and passages allocatedparticular codes across the transcripts wereextracted, matched and commented upon byeach team member. The results sectionrepresents the outcome of this process.

ResultsThe study found that a majority of students(66%) logged into the VLE on a daily basis.The predominant ways in which the VLE wasused concerned students either downloadingand then annotating learning materials, orusing the VLE for assignment preparation.

Table 1 indicates the time in minutes spent inthe VLE by students on one day in each ofthe eight week period of diary completion.

The data provided insight into the students’views of the contribution that the VLE madeto their learning, both in a positive andoccasionally, a negative way. This paperutilises participants’ comments to illustrate

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* Copies of all instruments are available from the authors on request.

the authors’ interpretation of the data, whichidentified the different ways that the VLEenhanced student learning as well asconsidering factors impeding their learningand how the VLE might be more effectivelyused.

The data provided an overview of studentactivity within the VLE. Table 2 illustrateswhat students did in terms of downloading,note taking, printing and reading notes viathe VLE:

Student activity data suggests that the VLE isprimarily used as a content repository, withlittle indication of non-transmissiveapproaches to learning being used. Themesgenerated from the qualitative data were asfollows:

Extension of subject knowledgeSome students discussed how extension oftheir subject knowledge was made possibleby the provision of supplementaryinformation on the VLE:

The VLE gives you the opportunity toexplore subjects in more detail… The VLE…has helped on essay writing and allother aspects of university project life…itcontains useful information on subjectswhich help you learn but also on subjectswhich you would be interested in, allowingyou to extend your knowledge. (2nd yearfemale UK student)

Modernity and motivation.Students welcomed the modernity of the VLEand found it motivated them in their learning:

The information was clear and conciseand helped me understand the workwhich I was trying to do. Therefore I feltmore motivated to complete it to a higherlevel…, it was a very contemporary way toreceive information…(1st year femaleinternational student)

Other students liked the flexibility of the VLE,the “any time, any place” aspect of usageand the ability to communicate with theirlecturers via the VLE:

The VLE is an interesting addition toteaching because it means that you haveaccess to everything you need to know forthe module and course at any time day ornight. (3rd year female UK student)

The VLE as a source of support& interactivityAlmost half of the survey respondents (42%)agreed that the VLE fostered interaction withstaff. When their lecturers were unavailableor time was short, students recognised thatthey could get support from the VLE:

The VLE is a good way to learn…especially at times when I may findsomething difficult on my course and donot have the time to speak to a lecturer, Ican log on to VLE and get information.(2nd year female UK student)

Support could be forthcoming not only fromlecturers but from other students in moduleswhere interactivity was encouraged:

I could not successfully complete amodule without the VLE site. I use VLE toallow me to interact with other studentsand lecturers via the discussion boardsand it often helps when I am strugglingwith work, especially when I know othersare also finding it difficult.(2nd year female UK student)

The interactivity and communications aspectof the VLE were described as beingbeneficial to shy students and tointernational students who might be inhibitedabout speaking up in class but felt moreconfident engaging in on-line discussion.This could help increase such students’confidence.

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Independent study and personalisation.The VLE afforded students the opportunity topace themselves and engage in independentstudy:

The VLE …allows the individual to bemore in control of their own learning andgo at their own pace… (2nd year femaleUK student)

Students were aware of how the VLE couldcater for different learning styles:

Students each learn differently so byhaving a mixture of learning options it willallow all students to be able to use theVLE to help themselves. (1st year femaleUK student)

The reflective studentFurthermore, students described how theyused the VLE to reflect on sessions,particularly by downloading and annotatingon-line learning materials provided by thelecturer, e.g. lecture notes and furtherreading links. However, some studentsbelieved the VLE was not being used formaximum benefit and as such limitedopportunities for students to adopt astudent-centred approach to learning:

I have not greatly benefited from the VLEin a sense regarding teaching; it is morean information point for me. It mainlysaves me time if I can print off lecturesrather than taking a lot of notes…The VLEis not as yet an aid to learning nor a way oflearning. There has been nothing morethan lectures put on the VLE. (2nd yearfemale UK student)

Certainly students were aware of how theeffectiveness of the VLE was dependent onusage by staff and students:

The VLE is certainly an effective additionto teaching in terms of the facility to postlearning information and material.

Sometimes it is an interesting addition toteaching. It depends on the lecturer andhow they use it. (postgraduate female UKstudent)

On the other hand there were instanceswhen lecturers used the VLE but thestudents on the module did not availthemselves of the options made available tothem:

It also depends on the student cohort.For example, one of my lecturers started adiscussion board this semester which Ithought was a really good idea and a goodway to stimulate interest but no onebothered to post anything there!(postgraduate female UK student)

This is a common experience with face-to-face courses since students may feel there isno real need to use virtual discussion whenthey have direct access to their peers. Use oftechniques to encourage participation,particularly through staff developmentactivity, might increase discussion boardactivity:

Students use the VLE just because theirtutors ask them to do it. They do not use iton their own initiative. That may be one ofthe reasons why on-line discussion is notused widely…The function of interactivityis available on VLE, but students are notinterested in it. I think one of the mainreasons is that the “authors” of VLE arenot responsible… too busy to make theirmodule information attractive.(postgraduate female internationalstudent)

However, it would be inappropriate to blamestudents for failing to use the VLE if staff lackthe time, experience and training to makeon-line material more attractive. Lecturersmay not be afforded the time to developexpertise or attend training sessions toenable this.

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Students appeared to adopt a student-centred approach to their learning whenusing a teacher-controlled facility since theywere able to identify ways they met theirindividual learning needs, as in the followingexample:

I normally do a lot of research to understandthe problem very clear before solving it. Ineed a clear structure or strategy to learn andestablishing them take me a lot of time. Ithink VLE is suitable for me because theamount of material and how it is organisedhelp me to reduce my time searching formaterials and focussing more on the actualproblem. (postgraduate male internationalstudent)

Impediments to student engagementwith the VLEStudents identified a number of impedimentsto their use of the VLE, including nature ofcontent; lack of effective induction;consistency in navigation functionality; and,access problems.

Text-based contentSome e-Learning systems containpredominantly text-based content whichmay make users less engaged during on-linelearning. Users dislike reading large volumesof text on screen (Carswell, 1998). AsCarswell points out, students are used to the‘web culture’s colourful punchy documentswhich display their information quickly andeasily’ (Carswell, 1998: 47). The VLE wascriticised by a number of students for itslimited functionality and over-reliance ontext, which may partially explain low take-upin some modules:

As I study Law I often have to read longpassages of text which can be quiteboring but if there were images andinteractive questions and answers to testyourself on what you have just read, itwould make it more interesting. (1st yearfemale UK student)

InductionOnly 13% of the questionnaire respondentsfelt that they needed more guidance in usingthe VLE and, overall, 85% agreed that theywere confident using the VLE. However, anumber of student focus group participantsidentified problems in their preparation:

I didn’t receive much support at thebeginning of my course on how to use theVLE so found that I have taught myself.(1st year female UK student)

It would appear that some students wouldhave preferred greater information about theVLE plus more preparation for using the VLE:

I wish I had understood the significance ofit……I really wish that we had theopportunity to use VLE and navigate ourway around the site as if we weredownloading lecture notes before alecture etc as that would have made itstick in my mind so much more. Also ifsomeone had actually said the words“This is the most significant thing you willdo today and it will have great significanceto the way you will study all year” I wouldhave paid more attention. (postgraduatefemale UK student)

This comment would seem to indicate aneed for a more effective inductionprogramme, including emphasising theimportance of the VLE.

Access and navigationIn the case of these two impediments, Britainand Liber (1999) discuss the ‘micro-world’ ofthe VLE and the potential impact of how thecourse structure is set up with linkage oftools to course homepages etc. While 78.5%of questionnaire respondents felt the VLEwas easy to navigate, an issue ofinconsistent appearance emerged in thestudy:

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Different layouts for different modules cancause confusion…should be a standardlayout for each module. Although ‘modulecontent’, ‘learning material’ and ‘learningresources’ might all be the same thing, itcan cause confusion…(2nd year male UKstudent)

These comments provide guidance to staffabout the need to consistently design VLEsites, assess ease of navigation through aVLE site and prepare students for using theVLE.

Concluding remarksMost student activity in the VLE appears tobe associated with a transmissive approachto learning. Whilst there is some evidence ofnon-transmissive approaches being used,particularly student collaboration andconstructivist learning activity, it seems to belimited usage. Student data provides littleindication that academic facilitation ofcollaborative and/or constructivist learningoccurs, predominant academic use of theVLE being as a repository of teacherproduced learning materials.

The VLE offers pedagogic benefits to staffand students. For example it has thepotential to help students explore subjectsfurther and in more depth, it can motivatestudents, it affords students the opportunityto pace themselves and engage inindependent study; and it can aid reflectivethought.

Students identified other aspects of their VLEuse that have implications for developmentand use of the VLE by staff. Some studentsbelieved they needed more preparation inusing the VLE. Inconsistencies in sitestructures hindered students’ ability tonavigate module sites. A number of studentsbelieved that the VLE’s communication toolshad, if used effectively, the potential toenhance student learning.

The study highlights several areas in whichstaff may want to consider developing initialstudent preparation for using the VLE,ensuring students are not only able to usethe VLE, but understand its importance intheir learning. Furthermore, staff shouldconsider how to best make use of the VLE’spotential to support collaborative and/orconstructivist learning activity to facilitatedeep learning.

Many of these recommendations haveimplications for staff. However, the authorsacknowledge that the study did not obtainstaff perspectives on how a VLE canenhance student learning. Another group notincluded in the study was students onprogrammes making no use of the VLE.Whilst the authors attempted to obtain theviews of such students, none volunteered tocomplete the online questionnairespecifically designed for them. Both staffVLE users and non VLE student users wouldform groups worthy of study, though theresources available to the authors meant thatthe study focussed upon student users.

References Boyatzis, R., 1998. Transforming qualitativeinformation: Thematic analysis and codedevelopment. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Britain, S. & Liber, O., 1999. Framework forPedagogical Evaluation of Virtual LearningEnvironments. JISC Technology ApplicationsReport 4, [Online] Available at:http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001237.htm [Accessed 17 January 2008].

Carswell, L., 1998. The ‘Virtual University’:toward an Internet paradigm. ACM SIGCSEBulletin, 30(3), p.46-50.

Conole, G. & de Laat, M., 2006. Learnerexperiences of e-learning, [Online] Availableat: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_learnerxp.aspx[Accessed17th January 2008].

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Jonassen, D. & Land, S., 2000. Theoreticalfoundations of learning environments.Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum.

MacLaren, I., 2004. New trends in web-based learning: objects, repositories andlearner engagement. European Journal ofEngineering Education, 29 (1), p.65-71.

Mayes, T., 2006. LEX: Learner experiences of e-learning. Methodologyreport, [Online] Available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/lex_method_final.doc [Accessed17th January 2008].

Patton, M., 2002. Qualitative research &evaluation methods. (3rd edition), ThousandOaks: Sage.

Sharpe, R., Benfield, G., Lessner, E. &DeCicco, E. (2005) Scoping Study for thePedagogy Strand of the JISC e-LearningProgramme. [Online] Available at:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_learneroutcomes.aspx [AccessedJanuary 2007].

Strauss, A.L., 1987. Qualitative analysis.New York: Cambridge Press.

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Table 1: Minutes spent by diarists on VLE

Table 2: Downloading, note taking, printing and reading and the VLE

Action Number usingDownloads 23Note-taking from screen 4Printing 24On-line reading 20

Teaching Activity WeekNumber Date Mean Mode Median

Semester one teaching 1 Nov 13 67 120 352 Nov 20 78 120 603 Nov 27 54 60 604 Dec 4 78 60 60

Semester 1 5 Dec 11 62.5 60 60exam period 6 Jan 8 72 60 60Independent study week 7 Jan 15 52 180 5

Semester 2 teaching 8 Jan 22 53 120 20

IntroductionBefore considering how VC is used in detailit is necessary to outline the reasons forusing the technology. UHI is not aconventional educational institution intowhich students can travel to receive acentralised service. Rather it is a partnershipof scattered campuses, colleges andresearch centres spread across theHighlands and Islands of Scotland. UHI wasset up with the aim of eventually becoming auniversity in and for the Highlands andIslands. The intention was that the region’speople would not be obliged to leave theircommunities in order to study at degree levelor pursue a career in academia. It was alsohoped that locally managed courses wouldbetter reflect the economic needs andcultural aspirations of the indigenous people(UHI 2003, p.3). The reason this has neverhappened before is that the region has arelatively modest population (about half amillion), scattered over a huge area. It hastherefore lacked the necessary critical massfor a conventional HEI (Hills and Lingard2003, figs. 2, 3 and 4). In the late twentiethcentury two things changed. Firstly a muchhigher proportion of the population wasgiven the opportunity to go to university andsecondly technology started to offer theprospect of bringing services togethervirtually, through use of the internet andvideo-conferencing (Hills & Lingard 2003,

p.32). The UHI project has tried to build onexisting educational provision in the form of15 independent educational and researchinstitutions. As well as the main campusesmany of the further education institutionshave small outreach/learning centres, whichmeans that most of the Highlands andIslands population is within reach of thenetwork.

The difficulties of offering HE in theHighlands and Islands environment isdemonstrated by the example of ShetlandFurther Education College, centring on themain town Lerwick, Shetland. Shetland isphysically isolated from the rest of Scotland,a hour’s flight or twelve hours on the ferryfrom Aberdeen. Communication is also achallenge internally. Shetland’s populationof just under 22,000 people are scatteredover an archipelago of 15 inhabited islands,stretching north south for over 120 km, evenwithout counting Fair Isle, which is half wayto Orkney (SIC 2006, p.4).

The institution currently supportsapproximately 75 full time and 120 part timelocally based HE students, on programmesranging from HNC to PhD level (ShetlandCollege 2008), but only one member of staffis wholly engaged in HE. (Most HE studentsare supported by lecturers whose mainbusiness is FE teaching).

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2. Using Video-conferencing to Teach in HE

Simon Clarke, UHI Millennium Institute. [email protected]

Summary This paper will examine the use of video-conferencing (VC) as part of a blended learningapproach within the UHI Millennium Institutes's networked taught degree programmes.Discussion will focus on the author’s generally positive experiences of using the technology tosupport students, but will also highlight potential weaknesses which can lead to less satisfactorylearner outcomes, and have limited the uptake of the technology amongst UHI’s lecturers.

Keywords video-conferencing / networked teaching / UHI Millennium Institute / blended learning

Networked Learning Using VC and VLETechnologyClearly such a small college acting inisolation could not support the diversity ofspecialisms that are required in a degreeprogramme. The solution has been to drawon the resources of other colleges by meansof video-conferenced classes supported bythe use of a Virtual Learning Environment(VLE). For example on the BA Culture Studiesprogramme politics, sociology and someliterature modules are taught to Shetlandstudents from Inverness College. Thearrangement is a reciprocal one, with theauthor offering archaeology and heritagemanagement modules to students across thenetwork. In semester one of 2007-8 forexample the module “History of MaterialCulture” (a core module for both BScEnvironment and Heritage and BA CultureStudies and an option for BA ScottishHistory) was taught to 44 students based in16 different campuses and learning centres.

The role of the lecturer in remote colleges istherefore twofold; Firstly lecturers act asacademic specialists, providing a servicethroughout the UHI partnership. Secondly,and equally importantly, they offer non-specialist support to students locally, initiallyinducting them in the use of VC and VLE andthen providing encouragement and generalacademic support. As has been foundelsewhere this second role is vital to studentretention and achievement on e-programmes(Goldstein 2002, p.14-15; Boys 2008, p.11).

Both the institution and individual academicsbenefit from this arrangement. Small collegesare able to offer a greatly expanded range ofcourses. Because cohorts can be assembledfrom across the region the lecturer is able tobe a specialist, which means they can teachto a higher standard, and keep their workload to reasonable proportions, allowing timefor engagement with research. In fact withoutthis arrangement the author’s post inShetland College would not be educationallyor economically viable.

The Learning ExperienceStudents also benefit from the use of VCtechnology, getting weekly interactivesessions with their tutors in a way that couldnot be achieved by a VLE alone. The typicalVC set-up has either two screens, or a splitscreen, with one incoming image and oneoutgoing. The incoming signal is voiceactivated to show whoever in the remoteaudience is currently speaking. Often this willbe the lecturer, but if another site asks aquestion or wants to make a point the imagein all the participating suites switches to thatstudent. Indeed as all the sites haveessentially the same equipment thetechnology can have a profoundly levellingeffect. There is no front of the class, nopodium from which the lecturer holds court.Everyone can, with encouragement,contribute on an equal basis. Used correctlythis can be a powerful aid to student-centredlearning in which the class are encouraged toplay an active, contributory role.

The outgoing signal is typically a camerafocused on the local participants, but mostUHI VC suites also have alternative inputdevices. The first is the “document camera”or “object camera” which allows the operatorto show slides and documents, even smallobjects to the remote group. Input is alsopossible from a PC or laptop so thatPowerPoint presentations or video-clips canbe shown. This means that teachingsessions have the potential to be as visuallyrich as in a conventional classroom.

Differences to a Conventional Classroom While a VC learner experience is in manyways comparable in quality to a face-to-faceencounter, the VC delivery is different fromconventional classroom teaching in anumber of important respects. These need tobe bourn in mind if learning is not to be badlydegraded. The most striking difference is theabsence of instant feedback from VC classes(contra Smyth 2005, who over estimates thecapabilities of the technology). During VCsessions sites without an immediate

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Using Video-conferencing to Teach in HE

contribution to make are encouraged to mutetheir microphones to improve the audioquality (cut out background noise and audiofeedback) and to avoid the image changingevery time papers rustle or a participantcoughs. Noise in the classroom can be atrial, but it is also a vital clue as to the moodof the class; are they bored,uncomprehending etc. Similarly unless theVC has been set to show multiple sites, like“Celebrity Squares” panellists each in a tinysplit screen box, the lecturer’s incomingscreen will normally show only the last site tohave spoken. The majority of theparticipating sites are therefore not givingany visual cues from body language; has theclass slumped at their desks or even left theroom! The solution is for the lecturer toconstantly be soliciting the variousparticipants for their opinion. At the very leastthe class should be given the chance to askquestions, and confirm that they haveunderstood the points made so far. Ideallyhowever remote students should be requiredto actively participate – offer their ownopinion on issues raised or provideadditional local examples.

It is technically perfectly possible to deliver aformal lecture by VC. However from apedagogical perspective it is not normallydesirable to do so. It is very difficult to holdthe attention of a class that you are gettingno visual or audio cues from. To be effective,short burst of presentation by VC should beinterspersed with question and answersessions and opportunities for the wholeclass to contribute. Interaction after all neednot just be between the student and lecturer.

There will of course be considerablyquantities of “content”, significant facts thatany course needs to impart to the class.However if the lecturer is in “broadcast only”mode there are cheaper and more reliablemechanisms than VC available. In the pastthis might have been done with handouts ora course workbook In the era of the internetthese are conveniently replaced by materials

held on a VLE, for UHI currently Blackboard.This allows most of the necessary knowledgeto be delivered asynchronously, and thusavailable to the student at a time of theirconvenience. A good learning and teachingpattern is to expect students to have readmaterials ahead of the timetabled VCsession. This liberates the class fromknowledge transfer allowing it to concentrateon student participation.

Student Satisfaction and Staff UptakeModule evaluation from ‘History of MaterialCulture’ suggests most students are happy orvery happy with their experience. In particularthey value the detailed on-line notes anddirections for further reading (much of itidentified on-line). Although VLE interaction ispossible and positively encouraged throughthe discussion board, most students muchprefer the live VC discussion which occursinterspersed with short bursts of slidepresentations by the lecturer. Used properlyVC can give a classroom experiencecomparable to conventional face to faceteaching. Student satisfaction is by no meansconfined to “generation-y” born to the age ofe-communication. UHI’s networked coursesrecruit very high proportions of maturestudents, including pensioners. If supportedadequately the UHI experience is that moststudents quickly get used to the technology,even if they have had little previousexperience.

Sadly the blended learning experiencerepresented by the “History of MaterialCulture” module might be regarded asexceptional. A recent survey of UHI’s VCteaching found only one other UHI modulewas taught to as many learning centres. Asignificant proportion of UHI VC teaching is toonly one or two other centres, and studentcohorts are usually modest (VC StakeholdersGroup 2007). Such VC use is certainlyextending the range of subjects availableacross the different partners and probably thespecialist qualifications of those leadingclasses. These are worthwhile achievements,

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but it is not clear that UHI’s use of thetechnology is generally being managed tomake delivery more efficient or financiallysustainable. Furthermore blended delivery isnot the dominant mode within UHI, becausethe majority of courses continue to bedelivered conventionally face to face to smalllocal cohorts in parallel rather than bynetworked provision, even where the samequalification is available in more than onecentre.

One reason for this is certainly the perceptionamongst staff and students that VC deliveryrepresents a second rate experiencecompared to conventional classroomcontact. Recent focus groups in InvernessCollege for example have been highly criticalof VC provision, citing poorly preparedsupport materials, poor VC room set up and alack of interaction in VC classes (VCStakeholders Group 2008).

Good and Bad VC PracticeThere is no detail in the focus group reportsto suggest which modules or even whichcourses students are being critical of.However considerable anecdotal evidenceexists of less than ideal practice. One of themost common problems has been staff failingto modify their conventional classroomderived technique. Often little or no allowanceis made for the strengths and weaknesses ofthe technology so that materials areunavailable or illegible and activities poorlyconsidered or non-existent for remotestudents.

In some cases students are based locally inthe centre from which a lecturer is delivering.It is not impossible for combined local andremote classes, but often the lecturer endsup addressing the local group to theexclusion of the remote learners. Unless thelecturer make a conscious effort to addressthe camera, creating the illusion of eyecontact, the students watching by VC willquickly feel excluded. In the most extremecases due to the way rooms have been set up

teaching staff have turned their backs on theVC camera in order to faced those presentlocally. Nothing could be more calculated togenerate a sense of alienation in the remotestudents, who naturally feel that they arepassive onlookers intruding on someoneelse’s learning experience. Comments andquestions from the local group are evenharder to handle well, easily degenerating intolocal round table discussions to the exclusionof the wider group. Care needs to be taken toensure that microphones can pick upstudents’ contributions and ideally that theytoo can address the VC camera.

Everyone participating in the VC, not just thelecturer, needs to make an effort to ensurethey get the most out of the technicalcapabilities of the equipment. The wholepoint of VC is to be seen and heard, and thatmeans appropriate room layout, direction ofthe camera and lighting. Sitting off camera orin the dark are simply not acceptable.If you cannot see the participants’ facesthey may just as well have joined by phone!Lecturers obviously need to set a goodexample themselves, but they also need toactively correct students in their use, asthey would challenge disruptive behaviourin a conventional classroom or poorgrammar in written work. Quite apart fromthe impact on the VC session itself these areimportant transferable skills in the knowledgeeconomy.

Institutional SupportThe infrastructure required to connectstudents and lecturers to their classes isformidable. UHI has invested heavily in largenumbers of VC suites (five in ShetlandCollege alone), network bandwidth and the“bridging facilities”. It also employs a full timeteam of VC technicians to oversee thefacilities and manage the booking andconnection process. Classes are pre-bookedwith all the details of which suites are to beconnected at what time and for how longrecorded on an automated system. The VCbridge team is based in Shetland College, but

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could have been based anywhere; monitoringthe process and fixing problems remotely.The majority of classes start smoothly withonly a minimum of technical input from thelecturer who is free to concentrate onteaching. If a VC suite is wrongly connectedor fails to due to technical problems help isonly a phone call away.

The efficiency of this process is an importantprerequisite for success. UHI’s considerabletechnical competence however is not enoughin itself. As Dearing noted “all HE institutionsshould develop managers who combine adeep understanding of communications andinformation technology with seniormanagement experience” (Dearing 1997;paragraph 42). Development of widelynetworked courses have been materiallyobstructed by the fractured nature of UHI’sadministration – what it refers to as its“federal collegiate model of governance” (UHI2006). The most graphic illustration of this ispartner institutions’ extremely reluctant torelinquish control of time tables and roombooking systems, to the extent that while VCconnections can be booked centrally, therooms that the equipment sit in need to bebooked separately with each of the collegesand leaning centres. Similarly the detail ofsemester timetables has never been centrallyagreed (Hills and Lingard 2003, p.190). Whilethe UHI’s start and finish dates are generallyadhered to, colleges set their own holidaysand differences, especially at the Easter andOctober breaks, are particularly problematicto networked courses. Some students missout on a significant amount of supportbecause they are not able to attend VCs. Thisraises the issue of equivalence of the learningexperience at different centres, andundermines students’ confidence in theadministrative competence of UHI. Similarly acommon system of VC teaching slots basedon standard 90 minute sessions has beenestablished across the main networked UHIcourses for several years, but is widelyflouted. A recent survey found that almosthalf of bookings for teaching by VC did notconform (VC Stakeholders Group 2007). Thismeans that the VC equipment cannot be

used efficiently and potentially that studentsare denied access to particular modules dueto the availability of the VC suites.

Many staff are reluctant to leave the comfortzone of traditional teaching and some fearthey would be innovating themselves out of ajob. JISC’s statement that e-learning hasenabled some courses to enrol additionalstudents without increasing the staff base(JISC 2008, p.31), will be regarded with deepsuspicion by many academics. Blendedteaching using VC and VLE requiressubstantial investment ahead of delivery, forexample in the development of on-linematerials (Inglis et al 2002, pp.56-7, pp.75-6).This requires initiative and drive on the part oflecturers, but also institutional support fornew ways of working. This has not alwaysbeen forthcoming in UHI where somecolleges’ thinking continues to be dominatedby narrow definitions of “contact time” –hours spent in front of classes, with little or noacknowledgement of time supportingstudents on-line or creating and maintainingmaterials for asynchronous delivery.

Within UHI it is notable that areas of pre-existing teaching strength, such ascomputing and business administration,present in almost every partner college, havegenerally continued with parallel localteaching rather than collaborating to teachacross the network. In contrast ambitiousnetworked programmes such as CultureStudies have often been created fromscratch, staffed substantially by newappointments, with no existing local coursesto build out from. With these institutional impediments toprogress it is perhaps not surprising that takeup has not been wider.

ConclusionTo conclude, looking firstly at the positive, VCteaching has significantly extended what it ispossible for staff to teach and students studyin remote UHI campuses. On a personal levelit was the only way my appointment to teacharchaeology in Shetland could have beenviable.

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Personally I have found the combination ofVC with VLE rewarding, giving me the senseof connection with students, and thefeedback to improve my teaching that wouldprobably have been absent from VLE alone.From the perspective of Shetland Collegestudents the approach has met withconsiderable success. In 2007 four studentsgraduated in Shetland from the CultureStudies honours programme; two with firsts,two with upper second class degrees. Threeof the four were students that would not havebeen able to attend a conventional course, sothe provision can be said to have significantlybroadened access to HE in Shetland.

There is however a down side which partiallyexplains the failure of VC delivery to havebeen taken up more widely. Firstly VCdelivery requires individual staff to completelyrevise their teaching practice, and many arestruggling in the absence of effectivedirection and encouragement. At theinstitutional level a massive outlay inhardware in the form of VC equipment is onlypart of what is required. Courses networkedacross the UHI partnership also represent aformidable organisational challenge for whichUHI lacks a cross institutional line-management system or the political will toenforce the kind of standardisation ofoperation necessary for efficient and effectiveintegrated student support across thepartnership.

ReferencesBoys, J., 2008. Introduction. in Boys, J. &Ford, P. (eds) The e-Revolution and PostCompulsory Education: Using e-BusinessModels to Deliver Quality Education. London:JISC/Routledge. p.1-23.

Dearing, R., 1997. The Dearing Report onHigher Education in the Learning Society.National Committee of enquiry into HigherEducation.

Goldstein, M. 2002. The Economics ofe-Learning. In Teaching as e-Business?Research and Policy Agendas; SelectedConference Proceedings, Centre for Studiesin HE (CSHE) University of California,Berkeley. pp.13-16http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=cshe[accessed 9 June 2008].

Hills, G. & Lingard, R., 2003. UHI: The Makingof a University. Edinburgh: Dunedin AcademicPress.

Inglis, A., Ling, P. & Joosten, V., 2002.Delivering Digitally: Managing the Tradition tothe Knowledge Media Second Edition, Openand Distance Learning Series, London:Korgan Page.

JISC, 2008. Exploring Tangible Benefits ofe-Learning: Does Investment Yield Interest?Northumbria University.

SIC, 2006. Shetland In Statistics 2006Economic Development Unit, Lerwick:Shetland Islands Council.

Shetland College, 2008. Operational Plan2007-8, (unpublished internal document).

Smyth, R., 2005. Broadband Video-conferencing as a tool for learner centreddistance learning in HE. British Journal ofEducational Technology 36(5), p.805 – 820.

UHI, 2003. Strategic Plan 2003-7, Inverness:UHI Millennium Institute.

UHI, 2006. Our Visionhttp://www.uhi.ac.uk/uhi/our-vision[Accessed 9 June 2008].

VC Stakeholders Group, 2007. Minute of V-CStakeholders Group Held on 2 November,Internal UHI document.

VC Stakeholders Group, 2008. Minute of V-CStakeholders GroupHeld on 18 January 2008, Internal UHIdocument.

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IntroductionSome jobs are largely procedure based, andcrudely, consist of following establishedprocedures when requested by a customer orline manager. A good example of this is thefast food industry, where staff are trained torapidly produce packaged food to a setstandard. The success of this training in thisindustry is perhaps demonstrated by theability of some firms to move staff trained inone outlet and use them in another outlet,even in another country, with only a minimalinduction at the new site.

However, many professional jobs rely on staffusing high order thinking and problem solvingskills. Training staff to follow procedures,such as described above may have onlylimited relevance. For example, a goal is setby the line manager with minimal guidanceabout how to achieve it. The employee isexpected to use their initiative to solve theproblem. There is often no standard, ‘off theshelf’ solution that exactly matches theparticular problem they have been given. Tosolve the problem may involve: clarifying theproblem or even spending time identifyingwhat the issues actually are; research of therelevant facts; supplementing this fact findingby asking appropriate questions; and finally,choosing between conflicting options beforeapplying a solution.

Although the work placement has clearbenefits in training students in such highorder thinking, there are significant issues inidentifying suitable work placements forincreasing numbers of students. Obtainingand maintaining work placements requires asubstantial investment of staff time. Theremay not be sufficient suitable employers ableto offer valid work experience within thegeographical and financial constraints of thestudents. Institutional concerns include risinginsurance costs for students on workplacement and fear of litigation. From thelearner’s perspective, the variation indelegated work based tasks is outside thecontrol of the student’s own institution andvariations subsequently lead to significantdifferences between individual studentlearning experiences.

The Aim of the ResearchThe aim of this research was to develop ageneral-purpose web based tool to simulatesome aspects of a project based workplacement by virtual means. In manysubjects, students were issued with anassignment brief that consisted of thousandsof words describing the case study withclearly stated aims and objectives. The taskswould be included, as would instructions onhow to format the report, the sections toinclude and the assessment criteria. While

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3. The experience of simulating student work experience throughthe Virtual Work Placement tool

John Curry, City of Bath College. [email protected]

Summary Educational theory indicates that the work placement has a clear role in professional typecourses and in preparing older students for work. Research by the National Centre for WorkExperience (2007) demonstrated that work placements were valued by students and potentialemployers as linking academic skills with the work place. Work experience can be a ‘maturingexperience’ with the students growing in confidence and generating increased application totheir studies.

Keywords Virtual work placement / VWP / work experience, assessment

this level of support and guidance, explicit inthe assessment material, assists thestudents, it bears little resemblance to thereal world of work. It reduces the scope forthem to develop and practise the high orderskills as posited by Bloom’s Taxonomy(Bloom, 1956).

The tool was designed to facilitate thepresentation of the real world case studymaterial in a more realistic way in order forthe student to complete an assessmenttask within the specified time constraints.In addition, the tool was designed tominimise the administrative burden on theacademic staff acting as ‘work placement’supervisors.

The solution was found to be a web-basedtool using ‘content-management software’designed by CSIM(www.tickboxmarketing.co.uk), a Somersetbased IT company with clients in commercialtraining and education. The result wassoftware that utilised a straightforwardinterface so that the academic could rapidlydevelop and customise all aspects of thecase study in the virtual work placement.

Virtual Work PlacementStudents were given a web address of the‘business’ that required their services and astrict deadline for the project to becompleted by. In addition, the students weregiven the administrative rules of the scenariothey were going to experience.

The company website for the organisationthat required their services containedbackground material such as the servicesoffered by the company and the staff.

In order to find out more about the project,the students had to log-on to a contractorsarea within the website. When they loggedin, they found an introduction consisting ofa phone call (accessible via the software)inviting them as consultants to submit atender for producing an IT system.

As the virtual ‘work placement’ progressed,subsequent multi-media material wasreleased to the students day-by-daythrough the contractor’s area. Thisincluded video interviews, notes, memos,diagrams, documents and photographs.Experience shows that the wider the rangeof material, the more the student’s interestincreased. The recent improvements invideo technology made it possible toproduce realistic interviews of less than 5minutes duration at a reasonable level ofvideo quality and suitably compressed to bedownloaded quickly.

In a real business environment, it might beexpected that meetings could takeconsiderable time, but when presented witha video of an interview it was found that 3-4minutes was the maximum length that avideo could keep the students attention.

The case study contained deliberateomissions and prompts such as memos toencourage the students to develop theirinvestigation by submitting furtherquestions by email. The tool allows somestaff working in the virtual firm to becontactable by email. The virtual workplacement tool forwarded the studentemails to the work placement supervisorwho then replied in the appropriate role.

Of course, the students were also requiredto role-play in their emails. If the studentsubmitted questions in an unprofessionalmanner, such as being rude, the responsewas a terse email stating that questionsmust be asked in an appropriate manner.Real business staff would not be expectedto tolerate rude contractors.

If the students asked for data that a real firmwould not have collected, e.g. how manyappointments last for 15 minutes inproportion to those lasting 30 minutes, thenthey were told that such information wasnot available within the time frame forsubmitting the solution.

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The experience of simulating student work experience throughthe Virtual Work Placement tool

In order to reduce the workload ofresponding to emails, an FAQ (FrequentlyAsked Questions) list was developed duringthe case study to allow the supervisor to ‘cutand paste’ the answer into an ‘in character’response. As questions were asked, theresponses were simply saved with anappropriate heading, so the same responsecould be used when the same question wasasked again.

Assessing the Virtual Work PlacementIn order to assist the students to focus on thevirtual work placement, the course teamagreed to make the project set by the virtualfirm as a formal assessment. Inevitably,some students raised concerns about this onthe grounds that the aim of the project wasnot spelt out when the assessment was set.

Some of the more academically ablestudents found that not having all the casestudy material laid out in a standard 5,000word case study forced them to adapt theirlearning strategy. They reported thisexperience as uncomfortable as they wereforced to ask questions in order to clarify thesituation. Conversely, breaking down thecase study information into multiple smallerchunks made it easier for some students tounderstand the problem.

One of the most frequent questions tosupervising staff was from students seekingguidance on which ‘characters’ in the casestudy they should believe. Some of the‘characters’ involved in the virtual firm hadapparently different views on what the finalsystem should include. Supervising staffalways suggested students should attemptto test the information they had been givenby asking questions, looking at staff job rolesor simply applying ‘common sense’. Anexample was an IT contractor who used towork for the virtual firm, giving obviouslymisleading information as they resentedbeing replaced by a new contractor.

An essential part of the case study were thehidden aspects of it. These required studentsto ask, by email, the correct person withinthe organisation. For example, studentswould have to ask for a copy of reportsmentioned in an interview; they would not begiven them automatically. There wereobvious omissions in the project brief, suchas the potential budget, but there weresubtler gaps to give opportunities forstudents who understood the case study todemonstrate this.

Internal verification is an essential part of anFECs quality control processes. The virtualwork placement presented unique problemsto the verification process. The case studieswere broken down, perhaps into 15 smallparts, often using multi-media and weresupplemented by answers that studentswould not receive if they did not ask the rightquestions. It was stated that the assessmentwas considered a simulated work placementand since it was a vocational course, arealistic case study could not be consideredunreasonable.

Issues with Virtual Work PlacementStaff identified that younger studentsrequired a ‘trial run’ case study, withguidance on how to tackle a less structuredcase study than they would normally haveencountered in their academic careers.

Not all students were comfortable withasking questions by email. Some studentsexperience of work was apparently of havinga job within a tight geographical area whereother staff were available and willing to takeverbal questions as they occur.

The ‘e’ nature of the work placement allowedstudents to tackle the problems in non-traditional office hours, however somestudents had unrealistic expectations of theresponse time of the ‘virtual staff’ and wereperplexed that questions emailed in themiddle of the night had not been respondedto by 9.15 am the following morning.

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Some of the students demonstrated littleinsight into what was reasonable to ask the‘virtual staff’ for and what was not. Inextreme cases, students were requestingsubstantial information at very short notice.

Student FeedbackStudent evaluation of their learningexperience within the virtual work placementwas very positive, however a minority ofstudents rated the experience as useful, butthey did not like it as it was uncomfortable,for example some mature studentscomplained the virtual work placement was‘too realistic’

Student quotesIn doing this assignment I have learnt thatsystems analysis is difficult.

You will often be given little information,and it will be hard to obtain anyinformation that you require.

People may not necessarily be very helpfulin giving you information, so you need toask the right people the right questions,and be very clear what you require; getstraight to the point.

I found this more interesting than a paperbased case study.

The virtual work placement was very goodand I could see this type of assignmentused more and more.

It was more realistic and different than myother assignments, and this made it moreinteresting to me.

The Impact of Using VirtualWork PlacementsThe timely completion of the assessment setusing the virtual work placement for fourcohorts of students significantly increased,but other factors could account for thedifferent performance. Overall, studentevaluation rated the virtual work placementassessment as more valuable than the otherassessments they had taken on the course,as it required application of their learning inwhat they perceived to be a near workenvironment. They also noted it hadsignificantly developed their confidence for areal work placement.

ReferencesBloom, B.S., (ed.) 1956. Taxonomy ofEducational Objectives, the classification ofeducational goals – Handbook I: CognitiveDomain, New York: McKay.

National Council for Work Experiencewww.work-experience.org

Virtual Work Placement toolwww.virtualworkplacement.co.uk

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The experience of simulating student work experience throughthe Virtual Work Placement tool

IntroductionIn the last 15 years there has been a rapidgrowth in the number of graduate studentsas well as international growth in theprovision of doctoral studies - HESA datashows that the total postgraduate populationhas grown by over 50% in the 10 years to2006/7. Over 120 UK universities offerdoctoral programmes (Powell & Green 2007)accounting for almost 25% of total studentnumbers in 2004 (Woodward & Denicolo2004) - this is still increasing.

Doctoral students do not form a‘homogeneous population’ (Humphrey &McCarthy 1999). Recent trends with theemergence of professional doctorates in anincreasing range of professional fieldsinvolving those new to research have led to aconcern that current provision does notacknowledge and respond to the diversity ofstudents now undertaking doctoral study.Wellington & Sikes (2006, p725) commentthat ‘doctorates are now more accuratelycharacterised by diversity than dichotomy’and that doctoral students have a ‘wide

range of academic, personal andprofessional needs’. It is also acknowledgedthat current provision does not recognise thediversity in the new modes of production ofresearch knowledge being developedthrough these programmes and this has ledto critical questioning of the purpose ofdoctoral programmes and how researchknowledge and practice in these challengingcontexts can be nurtured. For full-timestudents, this complexity is being addressedincreasingly through the provision of a taughtelement in doctoral programmes. This isbecoming the norm, the provision for part-time students (HESA data indicates thatthese students represent over 56% of thetotal) has been to some extent left behinddue to the complexity involved in providingprogrammes that match this diverse set oflearners’ needs. It is recognised that‘research into doctoral pedagogy isbecoming a priority’. (Scott et al 2004) andwe would argue that research into the use oftechnology-enhanced learning to supportnew pedagogies for these relatively ‘ignored’part-time students is an overlooked priority.

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4. New pedagogies for postgraduate research teaching:integrating on-line research narratives.

Gordon Joyes, University of Nottingham & Sheena Banks, University of [email protected] [email protected]

Summary This paper argues that within the context of growing numbers of doctoral students enrolled oncourses in the UK and the increasing diversity of doctorates there is a need to explore webbased pedagogic approaches that can connect research students with their research andresearcher communities. This approach underpins the work arising from an ESCalate fundedproject (http://escalate.ac.uk/1051) and continued within the HEFCE funded FDTL5 projectVirtual Resources for Online Research Training (www.v-resort.ac.uk). It presents an on-linepedagogic approach that builds a bridge between the contexts and understandings of theresearch students and the theory laden and ‘reified’ body of knowledge that is represented inthe literature. This free and highly navigable resource is explored and the design principles arediscussed. Research into the impact of the project and the lecturer and student experience isalso presented.

Keywords Capacity building / postgraduate training / virtual resources / methods

The need for technology-enhancedlearning and current use within researchtrainingThe literature identifies the potential fortechnology to bring more flexibility into thelearning and teaching of research methods(for example Birbili 2002. Deem & Lucas2006, Joyes & Banks 2008.) Currently,however, there is not much evidence thatthis is happening. A recent survey of thoseinvolved in research-training in November2006 within the UKGRAD Yorkshire andNorth East Hub provided evidence that e-learning was viewed as a way of reaching theincreasing numbers of part-time anddistance postgraduate researchers.However, use was found to be limited tosmall scale responses to specific problemsand was very much in the hands of a fewindividual staff with the relevant expertise,resulting in patchy provision and issues oflong-term sustainability.

Park (2007), speaking at a recent UKCGE(UK Council for Graduate Education)conference on digital futures, sees the role oftechnology in doctorate programmes assimply one of providing access to digitalresources, for example electronic archivesand digital libraries, rather than impacting onlearning and teaching. While electronicresources, such as repositories of electronicdissertations, are important, we argue thatlearning technology has the potential tochange the pedagogic practice withindoctorates, not only through flexible learningin relation to time, place, topics and use ofresources; but, also for the development ofhigher order knowledge and metacognition,where we can involve students in richinteractions with peers and moreexperienced researchers and engagementwith authentic examples and insights aboutpractice.

The V-ResORT project set out to exploreways of designing a resource that would beable to be reusable in a wide range ofcontexts that incorporated what we believe

are five key principles of designing forreusable learning (Joyes 2008). These are:

1. The choice of a generic area that has thepotential for wide applicability, i.e. notbounded within one subject discipline;

2. Adopting a suitable pedagogic approachthat allows for personalisation;

3. Adopting an ‘invented everywhere’approach that allows for an element oflocalisation;

4. Adopting an action research approach tothe design that involves potential users inan ongoing design process; and,

5. Ongoing research into the process andprinciples behind designing for reusablelearning to inform subsequent design.

The outcome, the V-ResORT website athttp://www.v-resort.ac.uk is described in thefollowing section.

The Virtual Resources for OnlineResearch Training (V-ResORT) websiteThe V-ResORT project has developed afreely available on-line resource to supportthe training of educational studies researchstudents at Masters and Doctoral level. Theproject involved four UK partner universities,the Universities of Sheffield, Bath andCanterbury Christ Church and was led by theUniversity of Nottingham, with a widernumber of institutions contributing resourcesas a result of the action researchdevelopment process. Central to the designis the recognition that video narratives: canpresent authentic multiple representations of‘real’ researchers projecting their knowledgeand experience of the research process; canshow complexity and the contested nature ofeducational research; and, can help to buildon-line learning communities. The projecthas developed a conceptual and apedagogic framework to support thematerials. It uses Internet-basedtechnologies that support video streamingand captures a wide range of researcherexperiences, case studies and expert viewsorganized into flexible e-learning materials to

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New pedagogies for postgraduate research teaching:integrating on-line research narratives

give an authentic context for theory andpractice. These are supported by skillstraining and links to resources. Thisrepresents a radical departure fromconventional text based and theory ledapproaches to introducing research methodsin education and responses from academicsindicate that they may be suitable for useacross a much wider range of subjectcontexts than education studies.

Figure 1 provides a view of the mainnavigation page, showing six key questionsthe researchers answered in describing theirresearch journey. Learners can select aquestion, a researcher and then one of theshort video clips shown. The selection of oneresearcher and their responses will reveal acomplete research journey. The selection ofa question and then the selection of allresearchers in turn enables comparisonsbetween all of the research to be made. Themain navigation page representing theresearch journey and the profile of one of theresearchers featured in the narratives isshown in Figure 1 while Figure 2 illustratesone of the video narrative clips for thisresearcher.

A key feature of the V-ResORT website is theway the materials are integrated into ameaningful learning resource. The completeresearch narratives are linked to reports,articles, data, thesis chapters and otheruseful on-line and text based resources.Skills training is provided that relates directlyto skills referred to within the narratives, i.e.the use of interviews, focus groups and dataanalysis software. Figure 3 shows a skillsbased training video clip coveringapproaches to writing at research degreelevel which is also used for analysis of theconduct of focus groups.

Discussant narratives are alsoincluded that explore generalmethodological issues that arisedirectly from the researchnarratives. This internal referencingwas a deliberate pedagogic choice,

the researcher narrative providingcontext and meaning for the learner- something research methodologytexts often fail to do.

Figure 1 represents one approach tonavigation around the video narratives. Asecond approach uses a keyword searchfacility as shown in Figure 4. If a lecturer or astudent enters a keyword such as ‘ethics’ allthe video narrative clips that engage with thisissues are presented. This was thought to beof particular use in research training withintaught components of research courses.

As a result of the action research processthat the project used to engage withpotential users, resources were suggestedthat would broaden the re-use of thewebsite. One of these suggestions resultedin the inclusion of video narratives to supportthe development of Master’s dissertations.As can be seen from Figure 5, three Master’sstudents can be viewed presenting theirperspectives at different stages ofdeveloping their dissertations.

The following section explores the impact ofthe resource from institutional through tolecturer and student use. This evaluationdata was gathered in a range of ways duringthe project. E-mail contact was made withregistered users who were requested tocomplete a survey. Follow up telephoneinterviews were conducted with volunteerrespondents who identified that they wereusing the website in interesting ways.

Impact: Institutional impactThe interest we have had from our owninstitutions and from others has often beenfrom senior academics with institutionalresponsibilities for graduate education,graduate schools and research methodsprogrammes. We believe that we have hadan impact in demonstrating how technologycan be used in these programmes thateffectively supports the diversity of learnersnow undertaking masters and doctoral

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degrees. This in turn is leading to strategicchange, for example, in understanding howcollaboration and re-use of resources canfacilitate development. It has also raisedawareness of the value of on-line visuallearning, in particular video and this isimportant given the predominance of text-based on-line learning materials within thisarea.

Departmental impactLocal mentors were identified as keycontacts within the institutions the projectengaged with. These mentors were critical incross-fertilising good practice from theproject into existing practice. The materialswere designed for educational researchmethods students and so the impact hasbeen strongest at departmental, teacher andstudent level. The materials were designed tobe able to be used flexibly and the evaluationhas revealed some examples where thematerials have been fully integrated intoresearch training courses with specificactivities being integrated within on-linematerials. In one institution students engagein on-line discussion through fora and/orblogs to develop understanding of theresearch process using the V-ResORTwebsite as the key stimulus. However inmost institutions the V-ResORT website isprovided as a useful link for students oncourses - we cannot be sure how manydepartments provide this link on theirresearch training websites for their researchstudents, but we do know of five who do this.

Lecturer impactThere has been impact on the local mentorsand on other lecturers. We know this fromthe requests that we have had to help withthe localisation of materials. In additiontwelve lecturers outside of the four partnerinstitutions who use the resourcesresponded to the project evaluation. Therewas evidence of lecturers incorporating thewebsite into face-to-face taught sessions. Itwas also common to recommend thewebsite for self-study of video narratives andalso for resources.

‘I have used extracts in teaching someresearch methods sessions. Theyprovided illustrations of some of theprocesses I am expecting of my studentsand an opportunity for them to hear, fromsomeone other than myself, the languageof research in use. I found the sectionsoutlining the identification of researchtopics helpful’. Senior Lecturer pre-1992University

‘I used this in the taught session first as ademonstration and advised students tolook at them independently, we did somefocused discussion on motives forcarrying out research and then they usedthese as self study resources’. Seniorlecturer pre-1992 University

The following comment is interesting as itreveals why these resources may beappealing to some lecturers. They seem toreflect the ways they were wanting to teachbut were limited by the lack of resources. Itseems for some V-ResORT has met a realneed.

‘To me as a tutor they were valuable - thekind of thing I would have liked to domyself but could not because of time andresourcing - using them as self access( tolook at particular aspects) is a good thingand makes it seem as we have researchedthe provision of resources rather thansimply relying on last year’s handout’Senior lecturer pre-1992 University UK

There were several unexpected outcomes. Itwas common for lecturers to be using theresources to explore some of the researchreported on the site.

‘I looked through the materials (I think itwas the first three) which stimulatedthinking on research design. I liked thevideos and the link to a paper written bythe person whose research I was mostinterested in.’ Senior Lecturer at a post-1992 university

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There was also evidence that lecturers whohad been introduced to the materials as partof their research training were alsorecommending the materials for theirstudents who were also undergoing researchtraining. We have also had feedback thatlecturers find the video narratives useful as amodel of how to design and use videonarratives/visual learning in their ownpractice. We have also had requests fromlecturers to select individual video narrativesto incorporate into on-line postgraduateteaching within a Virtual LearningEnvironment. This is a difficult issuebecause removing a video narrative from thelearning context that supports it underminesthe contextual integrity of the resource,though we can also see that it is anotherapproach to re-usability that needs to beconsidered.

Student learningThe evaluation survey data providesevidence of student learning. There is alsoevidence from within a Masters in ResearchMethods course, in which we had access tothe discussion forum and blog activities, thatthe students were actively using the V-ResORT materials:

‘I met this resource as part of my masterscourse in research methods and found thevideo narratives compulsive viewing. Iparticularly liked the Patya video as Irelated to the ways she seemed to bestill exploring the methodologicalissues. I watched this from start to finishone evening at home, it was so useful indeveloping an understanding of the realresearch process. The course readers areof course helpful but the video brought theresearch process alive for me.’ Mastersstudent at a pre-1992 UK university

There was evidence that the resources wereuseful at all stages of the research processnot just in initial research training. Thisstudent was using the resource at the end ofher doctorate and gives a sense of ways theresource can help a student overcome the

sense of isolation that can be felt at thisstage.

‘At my stage (final months of PhD write-up)the resources are valuable for those of us(probably most of us) working at a distancefrom our institutions ... it is nice to feel partof a wider network of people going throughthe same agony!’ Professional Doctoralstudent at a pre-1992 UK university

Developing a sense of communityThe words highlighted in the quotes aboveprovide evidence of the ways the resourceprovides opportunities for students toidentify themselves as part of a network ofresearch students, a network of researchersand a network of distance learners. This is aparticular strength of the video narrativeapproach, but it is also strengthened by theunderlying conceptual framework that wasdeveloped at the start of the project. Thisconsists of six main questions, representedin figure 1 as the research journey, that couldbe asked of any researcher or about anyresearch. This framework has been found tobe highly successful in revealing authenticresearch ‘stories’ that research students canfind connections with.

These questions are:• Where did the ideas for the research

come from? • What is the aim/purpose of the research?• Why were the theoretical and

methodological approaches chosen?• How was your research project designed

and conducted? - How? When? Whowith? Where?

• How was the research reported andcommunicated to a range of audiences?

• What happened to the research after itwas completed?

Wenger’s notion that the ‘reification’(stratification and codification) of knowledgeprovides a barrier to those new to adiscipline gives an insight into the reasonswhy beginning research can often be

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problematic, not only for research studentsbut for new lecturers in education. ‘There is apedagogical cost to reifying that requiresadditional work - even possibly, a newpractice - to make sense of the reification’(Wenger 1998, p. 264). The reified account ofthe research process provides a rather tidyseparation of choice of methodology,methods, field work, analysis, writing. Ourresearch within the project found thatresearchers talked quite openly of themessiness of the whole process adhering toa complexity model rather than a moresimplistic one. The conceptual frameworkallows for the description of this complexprocess. For example, question 4 allows forliterature review, fieldwork, analysis, furtherfieldwork, refining of research questions, etc.to be reported in the ways the processhappened. This tends not to be the wayresearch is reported in the literature and wewould argue is a confusingmisrepresentation for those new to the areaand an approach students cannot easilyidentify with and represents a barrier to theiridentity as members of a researchercommunity.

Concluding remarksV-ResORT is widely used in the sector andthere is evidence that it has impacted onpedagogic approaches within researchtraining, but there are issues about thevisibility of the website. We found thatstudents would be introduced to the websiteby lecturers/supervisors and/or otherstudents but would often not bookmark thesite and then ‘forget’ of its existence. Thereis an issue about where this and other usefulresources are located within institutions, i.e.departmental and graduate research schoolweb pages are seen as more helpful thanwithin a course in a VLE which is oftenpassword protected.

The resource will continue to behosted by the educational developmentinnovation technologies lab (ed:it)at the University of Nottingham

(http://editlab.nottingham.ac.uk/index.php/)ed:it is currently developing Web2.0 tools forsharing and discussing media (audio andvideo). One of these, the Virtual InteractivePlayer (ViP), allows for upload and tagging ofvideo, the creation of video quotations, andprivate or open group discussion around thevideos. The strength of the V-ResORTapproach is the high quality of the videosand the strong navigation features, theweakness is that it is very resource intensiveto create a video narrative and this can onlybe done by a technician. The strength of theViP approach is that anyone can upload thevideo, however quality cannot be assuredand navigation will be user dependent. Inreality there is a place for both the V-ResORTand the ViP approaches; they can be usedalongside each other as powerful ways ofestablishing researcher communities.

ReferencesBirbili, M., 2002. Teaching educationalresearch methods. [Online],Available at: http://escalate.ac.uk[Accessed 10 March 2007]

Deem, R. & Lucas, L., 2006. Learning aboutresearch: exploring the learning andteaching/research relationship amongsteducational practitioners studying in highereducation, Teaching in Higher Education,11(1), pp. 1-18.

Joyes, G., 2008. Key principles for qualityweb based resource development for globalcontexts. International Journal of Excellencein e-learning, 1(1), pp. 19-30. Available at:http://www.etqm.ae/journals/online_ver/elearning/issue1/imgs/article2.pdf[Accessed 14 June 2008]

Joyes, G. & Banks, S., 2008. (forthcoming).‘Using technology in research methodsteaching’, in R Donnelly & F Sweeney (eds.)Applied eLearning and eTeaching in HigherEducation. New York: Idea GroupPublishing.

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Park, C., 2007. The future of the PhD in thedigital age, Keynote presentation at the UKCouncil for Graduate Education (UKCGE)Summer conference, Leicester 2007.

Powell, S. & Green, H., (eds.) 2007. TheDoctorate Worldwide, Maidenhead: OxfordUniversity Press, Society for Research intoHigher Education.

Scott, D., Brown, A., Lunt, I. & Thorne, L.,(2004). Professional doctorates: integratingprofessional and academic knowledge.

Maidenhead: Oxford University Press.Wellington, J. & Sikes, P., 2006. A doctoratein a tight compartment: why do studentschoose a professional doctorate and whatimpact does it have on their personal andprofessional lives? Studies in HigherEducation, 31(1), pp. 723-734.

Woodward, D. & Denicolo, P., 2004. Reviewof Graduate Schools in the UK. Lichfield:Council for Graduate Education.

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Figure 1: The research journey and a researcher profile

Figure 2: A research narrative

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Figure 3: Skills training: discussing writing and analysing the focus group

Figure 4: Keyword search facility

Figure 5: The Master’s dissertation journey

IntroductionMy recent experience of close reading ofthree dozen final examination papers from agood Scottish university (in my role of anexternal examiner) yet again reminded mehow much mathematical effort is invested indevelopment of courses and design ofexamination problems – and how little of thiseffort is seen by the inexperienced eye of anoutsider.

I argue that in its intrinsic nature this hiddenwork of a teacher is essentially a form ofmathematical research; it uses the samemethods and is based on the same valuesystem. The difference is the form of output;instead of a peer reviewed academicpublication (or a technical report for thecustomer, as it is frequently the case inapplied and industrial mathematics) theoutput may take the form, say, of a detailedsyllabus for a course which exposesclassical theorems in unusual order, or just apage in lecture notes with a new treatment ofa particular mathematical topic. The criterionof success is the level of students’understanding, not approval by peers. The mathematical problems solved by alecturer in the process of coursedevelopment and conversion of

mathematical material into a form suitable forteaching are far from glamorous. They arenot in the same league as the PoincaréConjecture or the Riemann Hypothesis1, theyare more like ‘find a way to explain to yourstudents orthogonal diagonalisation ofquadratic forms without introducing innerproduct and without ever mentioningorthogonal matrices – but make sure that themethod works’ - I am using an example frommy own practice. As mathematical researchstands, this kind of work is perhapsunambitious, but it is neverthelessmathematical problem solving made verychallenging by severe restrictions on themathematical tools allowed.

Why are mathematics lecturers readilyengaged in this taxing and time consumingwork? Motivation comes mostly from variousexternal factors, starting from timeconstraints to requests to cover particularmaterial from colleagues who teachsubsequent courses. (Indeed intricate andcritical interdependency of differentmathematics courses is a delicate issuedeserving a discussion in a separate paper.)One may wish to add to the list: changes inthe school syllabus, the wideningparticipation agenda, etc.

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5. Didactic transformation in mathematics teaching

Alexandre Borovik, University of Manchester. [email protected]

Summary This paper is a mathematician’s attempt to explain to a wider educational community a specificfeature of mathematics teaching at the university level: the volume and crucial role of didactictransformation, hidden preparatory work. I start by observing that, in Britain, almost everycourse in university mathematics departments and most mathematics courses in serviceteaching are tailor made. This is different from the usual practice, say, in American universitieswhere courses in so-called “pre-calculus” are frequently based on standard mass printtextbooks and can be taught to mixed – and large - audiences of mathematics and engineeringmajors. For the sake of consistency I restrict the scope of the present paper to issues inteaching to mathematics ‘honours’ degree students in British universities.

Keywords mathematics / didactic transformation / evidence-based practice

1 These are two of the seven Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics. (Clay Mathematics Institute, 2000)

I argue that the intrinsic methodological linkwith research makes teaching ofmathematics at university level different fromteaching many other university disciplines.Of course, it also makes university teachingvery different from the secondary schoolteaching. I believe that for that reasonuniversity level mathematics teachingdeserves some special treatment in theeducational research arena.

Didactic transformationIt is time to introduce some definitions. Aremarkably compact formulation of whatmakes mathematics education so specialcan be found in a paper by the prominentmathematician Hyman Bass:

‘Upon his retirement in 1990 as presidentof the International Commission onMathematical Instruction, Jean-PierreKahane described the connectionbetween mathematics and mathematicseducation in the following terms:

• In no other living science is the part ofpresentation, of the transformation ofdisciplinary knowledge to knowledge as itis to be taught (transformation didactique)so important at a research level.

• In no other discipline, however, is thedistance between the taught and the newso large.

• In no other science has teaching andlearning such social importance.

• In no other science is there such an oldtradition of scientists’ commitment toeducational questions.’ (Bass, 2005, p417)

The concept of didactic transformation isfairly old and can be traced back to AugusteComte (1852, preface):

‘A discourse, then, which is in the fullsense didactic, ought to differ essentiallyfrom one simply logical, in which thethinker freely follows his own course,paying no attention to the naturalconditions of all communication. [...]

On the other hand, this transformation forthe purposes of teaching is onlypracticable where the doctrines aresufficiently worked out for us to be able todistinctly compare the different methodsof expanding them as a whole and toeasily foresee the objections which theywill naturally elicit.’

However, a Google Scholar search showsthat the concept is used in the literature onuniversity mathematics teaching less widelythan one would anticipate. The reason forthat is that, in mathematics, didactictransformation is indeed a form ofmathematical practice. Moreover, it is in asense applied research since it is aimed at aspecific application of mathematics:teaching. It remains mostly unpublished,underrated and ignored because it isfrequently confined to the early stages ofcourse development or to the ephemera ofclassroom practice.

Didactic transformation could, and should beinformed by advice from researchers ineducation and cognitive psychologists – butmethodologically it remains a part ofhardcore mathematics. Indeed, returning toCompte’s words:

‘…the doctrines are sufficiently workedout for us to be able to distinctly comparethe different methods of expandingthem...’ (op. cit.)

We see that, in the context of university levelmathematics teaching, the expressions ‘towork out’ and ‘expand’ refer to purelymathematical activities: essentially, theymean ‘to prove mathematically’. Thesituation with the words ‘distinctly compare’is even more interesting: here we see inaction the reflexive power of mathematics asa precise and flexible tool for study of thestructure and function of mathematics itself.

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Didactic transformation in mathematics teaching

Now I wish to turn to a couple of casestudies. Their choice is motivated mostly bythe desire to refrain from technical jargonand not overuse mathematical formulae.

Case study 1: Kid KryptoOne of the more interesting recent ideas inundergraduate mathematics teaching is theconcept of Kid Krypto as formulated by NealKoblitz, one of the creators of moderncryptography (Koblitz 1998; Fellows andKoblitz 1992). In Koblitz’s (1997) words, KidKrypto is

‘(The)... Development ofcryptographic ideas that areaccessible and appealing (andmoderately secure) to those who donot have university-level mathematicaltraining.’

In a course developed by Dr. Richard Boothand myself at UMIST (Booth and Borovik2002), we used this principle as the way ofjustifying the need for mathematical rigour. Ineffect, we expanded Koblitz’s thesis toinclude:

‘Proving to the students that a soundmathematical theory is required, bygiving them their own experience ofbreaking down cryptographic systemsintentionally built on a weakermathematical foundation.’

We applied the Kid Krypto approach to atraditional (with full proofs!) first year courseof elementary number theory. After carefullyselecting the minimal amount ofmathematical material which allowed thedevelopment of simple RSA-basedcryptosystems, we gave students a chain ofrigorous proofs and definitions where everystep was motivated by the needs of practicalcomputer implementation of cryptographicschemes – and, crucially, their survivabilityunder sustained cryptananalytic attacks(Borovik 2002). The introduction of anadversarial aspect – so typical for cryptology– brought a lot of excitement and fun to thestudents. A relatively modest transformation

of mathematical content allowed us toachieve a dramatic change in thepresentation of challenging material, and, Iwish to emphasise this point, withoutsacrificing the mathematical rigour ofexposition. The main reason why I mentionthis case study is because it demonstrateshow transformation of mathematical contentcan bring emotional charge into the students’teaching experience. Indeed, our studentswere taking their peers’ attacks on theircryptosystem so personally that some ofthem were prepared to spend a lot of timeand effort studying much more advancedcryptanalytic methods, to take revenge fortheir initial defeat and to attempt to destroythe attacker.

The next case study is quite different. It isless concerned with emotions andpresentation and more with the very natureof some of the deepest concepts at the heartof mathematical education.

Case study 2: Continuity, limit, derivativesFew topics in undergraduate educationgenerate more controversy than the classicalepsilon-delta approach to limits andcontinuity. I quote Raphael Nunez (2005, p.179):

‘Formal definitions and axioms inmathematics are themselves created byhuman ideas […] and they only capturevery limited aspects of the richness ofmathematical ideas. Moreover, definitionsand axioms often neither formalize norgeneralize human everyday concepts. Aclear example is provided by the moderndefinitions of limits and continuity, whichwere coined after the work by Cauchy,Weierstrass, Dedekind, and others in the19th century. These definitions are at oddswith the inferential organization of naturalcontinuity provided by cognitivemechanisms such as fictive andmetaphorical motion. Anyone who hastaught calculus to new students can tellhow counter-intuitive and hard to

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understand the epsilon-delta definitions oflimits and continuity are (and this is anextremely well-documented fact in themathematics education literature). Thereason is (cognitively) simple. Staticepsilon-delta formalisms neither formalizenor generalize the rich human dynamicconcepts underlying continuity and the“approaching” the location.’

This thesis is fully developed in a book byLakoff and Nunez (2000) and isrepresentative of a school of thought inmathematics education largely informed byneurophysiological research. However, onestriking feature of Nunez’s thesis (and thedebate on the role of the concept of limit inmathematics education in general) is that itignores an impressive variety of alternativetreatments of calculus available in themathematical (research) literature, some ofthem being remarkably intuitive andelementary.

For example, there is a well established areaof research on the boundary of real analysisand mathematical logic – the so-calledtheory of o-minimal structures – where all(definable) functions of single variable havehappened to be piecewise monotone andtake all intermediate values. In naive terms,these are functions whose graphs can bedrawn with a pencil, with the concept “canbe drawn” being made explicit and rigorous(van den Dries 1998). Historically, the theoryof o-minimal structures is a directdescendant of Euclid’s Elements – itoriginates in Tarski’s work on a decisionprocedure for Euclidean geometry (Tarski1949).

There is another approach, due to thefamous logician Abraham Robinson (1996),which places infinitesimals (quantities andvariables which are bigger than zero butsmaller than any positive real number),purged from calculus in 19th century, back atthe core of the subject. So far, this approachhas made only relatively modest inroads intomainstream teaching (Keisler 1971).

Next, there is a lecture course by DonaldKnuth on calculus in O-notation, taught byKnuth for many years and exceptionally wellpolished pedagogically. It is available fromKnuth’s website and is partially published inGraham et al. (1989). One has to know thecult status of Knuth in the mathematical andcomputer science communities to fullyappreciate his influence: when I placed thetext of his letter about teachingundergraduate calculus (Knuth 1998) on myblog(http://micromath.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/donald-knuth-calculus-via-o-notation/),the post got 25,000 hits in 24 hours.

Finally, there is also a very promisingapproach to calculus based on eliminatingthe concept of a limit and replacing it byuniform Lipschitz bounds (Marsden andWeinstein 1981). It is close in its spirit toKnuth’s calculus in O-notation but differs insome important aspects and notation. Forexample, definition of derivative f’(a) of thefunction y = f(x) at point x = a becomes

|f(x) – f(a) – f’(a)(x – a)| ≤ K(x – a)2;

for a non-mathematician, it suffices to noticethat the notorious epsilons ε and deltas δ arenot present in the formula. The “rich humandynamic concepts underlying continuity” soloved by Nunez have also gone, having beenreplaced by a closely related – but different –concept, that of approximation.

And here we discover the most peculiarphenomenon: in order to be able to discussand compare alternative treatments ofundergraduate calculus one has to be able tosee it within a much wider mathematicalperspective; in particular, some basicunderstanding of set-theoretic topology,functional analysis and model theory is reallyuseful – even if we are talking about DonaldKnuth’s method formulated in a rathertraditional and elementary language.

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Some practical questions arise fromthese examplesMathematics provides a bewildering array ofapparently incomparable approaches to thesame topic. We also have to remember thatwe cannot freely bend them into the desiredshape or pick and mix elements of differentapproaches: each of them has its owninternal logic which cannot be interferedwith.

In that case, how do we predict and assessthe relative advantages and disadvantagesof a particular approach in teaching to agiven group of students in a given course?

As a practicing teacher of mathematics, I canrely on my colleagues’ collective wisdom, butso far I could not find usable advice in theliterature on mathematics education. Iunderstand that this is a serious andchallenging problem.

Indeed, it is the reality of university life thatthe student population is very non-homogeneous. In a large university – like theUniversity of Manchester – we have to teachmixed cohorts of British and foreign studentswho represent vast swathes of thesocioeconomic, educational and culturalspectra (and, in case of foreign students,countries from Afghanistan to Zambia). Next,students’ background varies unpredictablyon a year to year basis due to changes in theEnglish school curriculum and fluctuations inthe exchange rate of the pound – the latteraffects the enrollment of foreign studentsfrom particular countries. The non-homogeneity of sampling renders statisticalmethods somewhat unreliable.

Therefore I find myself in agreement with GertBiesta’s critical assessment of ‘evidence-based practice’ (Biesta 2007). Perhaps

evidence-based practice still makes sense inthe school curriculum where tens ofthousands of children are coached for thesame standard examination – but it is muchmore difficult to apply in the specificenvironment of university mathematicsteaching.

Instead, we need a systematic programme ofrecording the experience of individuallecturers and documenting the criteria usedby them in the selection of mathematicalmaterial and methods of its exposition.

Every mathematician is aware of theexistence of so-called mathematical folklore,the corpus of small problems, examples,brainteasers, jokes, etc., not properlydocumented and existing mostly in oraltradition and as anecdote. It is a smalluniverse on its own, and mathematicians’pedagogical observations form an importantpart. Occasionally, they find their way toprint; a nice example is provided by StevenKranz’s book (1999). But in general thecollective pedagogical experience ofuniversity mathematicians remainsuncharted territory.

Concluding remarksIt is only natural to suggest that didactictransformation should form part of theprofessional toolbox of a mathematicslecturer. This modest thesis, however, hasserious implications for lecturers’ trainingand professional development. The Britishmathematical community is trying to addressthe issue through the activities of theMathematics, Statistics and OperationResearch network (MSOR), but much morehas to be done. In this short paper, I can onlypoint to the exceptional importance of thiscomplex task.

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ReferencesBass, H., 2005. Mathematics,mathematicians, and mathematicseducation. Bulletin of the AmericanMathematical Society, 42(4), p. 417–430.

Biesta, G., 2007. Why “what works’’ won’twork: evidence-based practice and thedemocratic deficit in educational research.Educational Theory, 57(1), p. 1-22.

Booth, R. & Borovik, A., 2002. Mathematicsfor information technology: the challenge ofrigour. in Snapshots of Innovation 2002,Manchester: Curriculum Innovation, pp. 2-4.

Borovik, A.V., 2002. Implementation of theKid Krypto concept. MSOR Connections,2(3) p. 23–25.

Clay Mathematics Institute (2008) MillenniumPrize Problems. [Online]. Available at:http://www.claymath.org/millennium/[accessed 15/0/2008].

Comte, A., 1852. Catechisme positiviste, onSom- maire exposition de la religionuniverselle, en onze entretiens syste-matiques entre une femme et un pretre del’hurmanite. Fellows, M.R. & Koblitz, N., 1992. Kid Krypto.Lecture Notes in Computing Science, 740, p.371–389.

Graham, R.L., Knuth, D.E. & Patashnik, O.,1989. Concrete mathematics. Reading, MA.,Addison-Wesley.

Keisler, H.J., 1971. Elementary calculus: Anapproach using infinitesimals (Experimentalversion), Bodgen & Quigley.

Koblitz, N., 1997. Cryptography as ateaching tool. Cryptologia, 21(4) [Online]http://www.math.washington.edu/~koblitz/crlogia.html [Accessed 15 June 2008]

Koblitz, N., 1998. Algebraic aspects ofcryptography. Springer-Verlag.Knuth, D., 1998. ‘Letter to the Editor’,Notices of the American MathematicalSociety, 3, March.

Kranz, S.G. 1999. How to teachmathematics: a personal perspective.Providence RI., American MathematicalSociety.

Lakoff, G. & Nunez, R.E., 2000. Wheremathematics comes from: How theembodied mind brings mathematics intobeing. New York, Basic Books.

Marsden, J.E. & Weinstein, A., 1981.Calculus unlimited. Reading, MA.,Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co.

Nunez, R.E., 2005. Do real numbers reallymove? Language, thought and gesture: theembodied cognitive foundations ofmathematics, In R. Hersh, ed. 18Unconventional essays on the nature ofmathematics. Springer-Verlag, pp.160-181.

Robinson, A., 1996. Non-standard analysis(Princeton Landmarks in Mathematics andPhysics). Princeton, Princeton UniversityPress.

Tarski, A., 1948. A decision method forelementary algebra and geometry.09 Rand.

van den Dries, L., 1998. Tame topology ando-minimal structures, London MathematicalSociety Lecture Notes Series, 248.Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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IntroductionThere are five main areas where culturallyresponsive pedagogy impacts on access,participation and persistence. Gay (2000)identifies validation, comprehensiveness,multidimensional aspects, empowerment,transformation, and emancipation.

At an individual level access to andparticipation in HE is affected byconstraints and opportunities which occurwithin the emerging research areas oflanguage and cultural diversity, andexisting, established theoreticalframeworks surrounding learner identityand cultural capital and mediation. Theseare set against the corollary effect ofshifting expectations of individuals,employers, and other stakeholders, andmore importantly often conflictingassumptions of the HE experience held bystudents and their teachers. While the HEsector in the UK actually comparesfavourably with other OECD countries inthis area it is vital not to undervalue the

importance of success for learners in bothfurther and higher education in terms of thesocio-economic benefits for the widereconomy (OECD, 2007). The recent PublicAccounts Committee report highlighted theneed for Universities to make changes, inresponse to the changing needs of thestudents, tentatively concluding that:

‘Increasing and widening participation inhigher education attracts more students fromunder-represented groups who are morelikely to withdraw from courses early. Thesestudents may need more support tocomplete their courses. Universities need tounderstand the needs of their changingstudent populations. They should use marketresearch techniques such as customersegmentation to help them provide teachingand support services which appropriatelyreflect students’ different cultural, social andeconomic backgrounds, for example throughflexible timetabling of lectures.’(Public Accounts Committee report HC 3222008)

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6. Connecting inclusive learner participation within culturallyresponsive teaching in Higher Education

Alison Iredale, University of Huddersfield. [email protected]

Summary What we think we know about student retention and progression in UK Higher Education haslargely been informed by three writers in the field, Vincent Tinto, Mantz Yorke, and BernardLongden. Established literature also exists around cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986). Yet it is notclear that there is any sense of a cohesive theoretical framework for examining issues of accessto and participation in Higher Education (HE). This paper challenges the basis for institutionallevel strategic interventions which seek to improve access to and participation in HigherEducation in the UK. The notion of cultural capital is examined in relation to a specific diverseand multicultural community, where this aligns within a conceptual and ideological frameworksurrounding the widening access and participation agenda. It uses a specific example of awidening participation intervention, and focuses on one northern town in England.

Keywords Culturally responsive teaching / inclusive learner participation / widening accessand participation / cultural capital / retention and progression / community cohesion /cultural diversity

Parallel Lives: the socio-cultural context

‘Communities leading parallel livesdelineated by high levels of segregation inhousing and schools, reinforced bydifferences in language, culture andreligion.’ Cantle 2006a, p4)

The sense of frustration reported by TedCantle in 2006, from residents andrepresentatives from the communities of theborough of Oldham illustrates the complexissues associated with culture and identity,played out in a small northern town. Home tojust over 200,000 people, covering 55 squaremiles and lying seven miles from the city ofManchester; Oldham is one of the 50th mostdeprived local authority districts in England(Oldham Partnership 2005). It is also one ofthe most diverse in terms of ethnicity; with ahigher than average proportion of minorityethnic groups among its primary andsecondary school pupil population.

Against this background educationalachievement is of concern, with figurespointing to Oldham having the highestpercentage of those who do not have a level2 qualification within Greater Manchester. Italso has the lowest proportion of thosequalified to level 2, 3 and 4 within GreaterManchester, the North West and England(Oldham Partnership 2005).

Cantle (2006b) asserts that minority groupsare among the most disadvantaged sectionsof our communities, still experiencingprejudice and unequal life chances. He linksthe notion of parallel lives (separateidentities, segregation, transnational anddiasporic affinities) with the rise ininter–ethnic conflict seen during the‘disturbances’ experienced in Burnley, Bury,Oldham and other northern towns and citiesduring the summer of 2001. Following thedisturbances an independent panel, chairedby David Ritchie identified a specificrecommendation related to HE provision;that the DFES should drive forward initiativesdesigned to increase achievement and

aspirations among young people, andimprove the uptake of HE places locally.

The socio-economic context must not beviewed at this local level in isolationhowever, but rather be seen in conjunctionwith historical and economic factorssurrounding the growth and developmentof a diverse population in towns such asOldham, where specific groups of ethnicpopulations settled from the Indian sub-continent as a result of the increasingdemand for labour in the 1960s. Onereason for this demand can be related tothe increasing mobility of the residentlabour force who found the improvementsin working conditions provided by otherindustries in the area more attractive;together with a general rise in livingstandards during the decade, and apropensity to travel more widely in searchof jobs. Oldham mill owners, dependentlargely on the one dominant industry, thatof cotton spinning, struggled to attractworkers to jobs that depended on anti-social shift patterns.

One dominant industry, unskilled migrantworkers, and the resultant slump in thecotton industry which began in the late1970s left the town unable to resist thespiral downwards into economic and socialdeprivation. Despite the introduction of newtechnology in the cotton industry, Oldhamcontinued to decline, and without aninjection of new manufacturing industries itbegan to collapse in the 1980s leaving atown suffering from large scaleunemployment.

By 2006 the effects, in educational terms atleast, of these phenomena, include datawhich points to lower than average nationaland regional participation rates in HE,particularly the take up of post 16education among young Asian women(Dale, 2002). This is despite the widerregion (Greater Manchester) having one ofthe greatest concentrations of HigherEducation provision in Europe.

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Connecting inclusive learner participation within culturallyresponsive teaching in Higher Education

The challenges for Oldham in terms of itsneed to widen participation in HE can beillustrated with reference to its diversepopulation. The borough has the highestpercentage of the population with aBangladeshi background in the North ofEngland. At 8.6% this is almost 16 timesthe national average. The percentage of thepopulation from the Pakistani ethnicminority at 12.4% is one of the highest inthe North of England and over nine timesthe national average. In some parts of theborough there is a white working-classculture associated with low educationalaspirations. A high index of deprivation isreflected in a poor health record with arelatively high proportion (19.2%), of thoseof working age who have limiting long termillnesses – this percentage is some 42%above the national average. Finally, there isa significantly low proportion of those inemployment in professional and managerialoccupations (16.7% c.f. national average of26.3%) (Oldham Partnership 2005).

These statistics, outlined in brief, combinewith notions of identity and cultural capitaland mediation to assist with an examinationof learner participation in Education at a postcompulsory level, and particularly in HE.Access and participation in HE derive out ofan accumulation of life chances along acontinuum formed as early as in the first fewyears of school, where intervening factors,(education attainment, test scores,behavioural measures, etc.) are shown tohave little effect on improvements inintergenerational mobility within familycohorts in lower socio- economic statusgroups. This is compared with previousstudies (Blandon and Machin 2007: pp 10-18) which identified the stark contrast indegree attainment in those from the poorestparental income groups set against thosefrom the highest. Their report, viewedalongside the recent Committee of PublicAccounts report cited above, points to aworrying trend for policy makers, especially

when large scale interventions, such as AimHigher, financial support and HEFCE fundingallocations appear to be having little effecton changes in social mobility in relation toaccess and participation in HE.

The current scope of research and debate‘Nor is Widening Participation about well-qualified students from poorer or minoritybackgrounds making irrational choices ofinstitution.’ (Watson 2006: p7)

It is the nature of this emerging evidencewhich should signal a move towards agreater understanding of the learner inrelation to their access to and participation inHE. However, according to David Watson(2006: p7) the research field is ‘cluttered withnon-commensurate, non-replicable researchsuch that anyone with a strongly held opinioncan find a research study to back it up.’Socio-economic analysis of trends, and largescale interventions based on theirconclusions fail to recognise the complexityof the underlying issues, and these veryinterventions (Aim Higher, Junior University,and Young Professionals) compete todemonstrate measurable outcomes againstarbitrary key performance indicators, leavingthe socio-psychological field of study largelyuntouched. The existing picture, (Yorke &Longden 2006) particularly around definingand scoping retention, is problematic whenthe following issues are present:• Retention rates differ by: sector of

education; age of the students; level ofcourse, subject of course; socio-economic group; and institution

• Data on student retention is often of poorquality and may be inaccurate ormisleading.

• Reasons for student drop-out operate atindividual student, institutional and supra-institutional levels

• The field is under-researched area ofgender and ethnicity

• Most attrition occurs in year 1 (60-90%)

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Students cite a plethora of risk factorsleading to course withdrawal, including:

• Workload and Time Management• Feedback and Assessment• Teaching related• Curriculum aspects• Finance related• Friendship/Relationships• Pre-entry attitudes/information• Personal Matters• Induction Process• Accommodation related• Homesickness/loneliness

Commentators point to the stress created bywhat is still effectively a traditional (elite) HEsystem with greater numbers of students(Scott, 1996). The national target forprogression to HE is that by 2010, 50% ofthose aged18-30 enter higher education(HEFCE 2006). Nationally, this equates to350,000 additional full-time equivalentstudents enrolled in HE in 2010. The HEFCEStrategic Plan 2006–2111 states that theintention is to:

‘.. ensure that everyone with the potentialto benefit from HE has the opportunity todo so, whatever their background andwhenever they need it’ and to work inpartnership with others to raise aspirationsand educational attainment among peoplefrom underrepresented communities,thereby ensuring equality of opportunityfor ‘disabled students, mature students,women and men, and all racial groups.’

The HE curriculum is still in many casessimply not designed to cope withmass/universal participation. Problems areidentified with many existing interventionssuch as the effect on year two achievementswhen weak students have been bolsteredduring year one; the lack of sufficientlytrained personal tutors who understand thenature of the widening participation cohort,and that 90% of students with A levels asagainst only 50% with vocational

qualifications progress to HE study, leadingto a growth in higher level diversequalifications and routes into HE foremployed people and professionals. Tinto(1993) identified seven principles for effectiveaction on retention, three of which are:

• Student experience and preparedness• Social and Cultural engagement• Learning, teaching and assessment

However still we find little evidential basis forinterventions supported by principles andmodels such as that of Tinto, therecommendations of Yorke and Longden, orthe Student Lifecycle model devised byHEFCE (illustrated in Figure 1). Perhaps onemain reason is that, according to Bruner(1990, p33-65) culture is not easily atomisedinto logic, and whereas cultural shifts in post-industrial society tend to favour a post-modernist relativist investigation, thisapproach may not be entirely helpful in thesearch for an understanding of learneridentity as it impinges on participation in postcompulsory education. This may beparticularly so, when notions of culture andidentity are caught up in identityconstructions mediated by language use(Brown & Jones 2001: p 72). Halsey (1997p38) also cautions against the loss of aresearch methodology based on ‘politicalarithmetic’ in favour of a socially reflexive,insightful methodology, especially wherechange is dependent on a connectionbetween shared views on the direction inwhich society is moving.

It is not entirely certain that there is atpresent any sense of a shared understandingor perspective, particularly within culturallydiverse communities, leaving both anepistemological and ontological problemwhich the author seeks to unravel. If it isproblematic to sustain an argument forwidening participation from incomplete,incongruous and incoherent empiricalevidence, it seems that it may also be aproblem to focus on the individual learner,

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where identity, cultural capital and mediationthrough culturally responsive teachingaffects their access to and participation inHE.

Connecting the problemOne starting point is to consider sometheoretical frameworks, one of which is thenotion of cultural capital, defined byBourdieu (1977) as the long-lastingdispositions of the mind and the body, theobjects of use by a group or an individual,and the institutionalised appropriation ofthese dispositions and objects, into, forexample qualifications. He contrasts thisaccumulated history and labour to games ofchance and suggests it is

‘an imaginary universe of perfectcompetition or perfect equality ofopportunity, a world without inertia,without accumulation, without heredity oracquired properties.’ (Ibid. p241)

Albeit axiomatic, Bourdieu suggests that thisnotion of cultural capital can be used to linkinequalities in educational achievement withits distribution between social classes.Educational attainment is necessarily anindividualised measurement, whereas theaccumulation of life chances and skills sets(objectified and packaged for ease ofmeasurement as credentials andqualifications) hinge, according to Halsey etal. (1997), on inequalities based on socialclass, creating a “compensatory education”.The ideas around the compensatoryeducation movement are worth exploringbriefly here as a theoretical and policyperspective on discussions relating toimproving retention, particularly within thecontext of the wider socio-structural issuesfacing the lifelong learning sector and HE.

It is suggested that education (particularlychildren’s education) should be structured to“compensate for the cognitive and affectiveshortcomings of their culture (Winch &Gingell 1999: p35), and despite its critics, in

the US and the UK evidence suggests thatover time interventions in the classroom andat institutional level can help learners to“avoid practical problems in later life” (op.cit.p35). Critics point to the danger ofproblematising the learner (and his/herfamily) when it is the education system whichis deficient (Labov, 1972 in Winch & Gingell1999: p35), whereas other critics challengethe basis of the evidence itself (Winch, 1990in Winch & Gingell, 1999: p35).

Following the principles outlined above,adapted to accommodate the needs ofyoung people and adults, personal andsocial skills are repackaged and delivered tothose identified and targeted because oftheir perceived lack of cultural capital inorder that those targeted can better exploitthe opportunities available in HE and theemployment market (Halsey et al. 1997: p11).We see evidence of this phenomenon inspecific aspiration raising interventions suchas Aim Higher, Junior University, YoungProfessionals, Gifted and Talented, and awhole wealth of other targeted provision. Theyoung person (as is usually the target) isoften by 16 years old a “non-participator”and the widening participation agenda isdefined comprehensively to mop up alleventualities and examples of at-risk groups.

‘Widening participation is taken to meanextending and enhancing access to HEexperiences of people from so-calledunder-represented and diverse subjectbackgrounds, families, groups andcommunities and positively enabling suchpeople to participate in and benefit fromHE. People from socially disadvantagedfamilies and/or deprived geographicalareas, including deprived remote, ruraland coastal areas or from families thathave no prior experience of HE may be ofkey concern. Widening participation isalso concerned with diversity in terms ofethnicity, gender, disability and socialbackground in particular HE disciplines,modes and institutions. It can also include

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access and participation across the ages,extending conceptions of learning acrossthe life-course, and in relation to familyresponsibilities, particularly by gender andmaturity.’ (TLRP cited in Watson 2006: p7)

The reasons for lack of aspiration and non-participation are under researched, leaving,as Watson identifies, a passive and silentgroup who far from being passive by choicemay indeed be “seriously angry about thehand they have been dealt” (Gorard 2006cited in Watson, 2006: p8). Unless we canmap the territory of the non-participators,beginning to understand their identities,culture and motivations as well as the oneswho succeed at ‘A’ level then according toWatson the problem of raising aspirations isa tiny one compared to the challenges ofwidening participation..

The language of identity, according toSaussure (Easthorpe 1992 in Brown andJones 2001: p 72) not only names the realitybut also produces it, a self-narrative in effect,and this is often seen in remarks from themiddle classes about the rise in vocationaleducation being “a great idea for otherpeople’s children” (Wolf 2003: p56). Policymakers then begin to problematise learnersfrom diverse backgrounds and cultures,bringing to bear a universal “WE”,constructed from prevailing sociallyaccepted and hierarchical norms andacceptable differences. Even when HE isexpanded to include a route for those fromdiverse, often deprived backgrounds lackingin cultural capital, limited earnings and jobprospects still prevail.

‘Certain ethnic minority groups appear tobe significantly disadvantaged in theBritish labour market. Their membersexperience considerable additionalunemployment risks and earnings gapsand these inevitably lead to major materialconsequences and negatively impact theeconomic advancement of relevant ethnicgroups. Limited economic opportunities

are closely bound up with socialexclusion.’ (Tolley and Rundle, 2006: p21).

Appendix 1 outlines a specific interventionemerging out of the recent governmentinitiative to increase the number of HEinstitutions by 44 in the coming decadeexemplifies such an intervention, bringingtogether an economic imperative, and awider sense of responsiveness to the needsof a community.

ConclusionCompensatory education (Halsey et al.,1997: p11) can be comprehensive andmultidimensional, and has the potential toempower, transform, and emancipate onlywhen an understanding of identity forms asignificant part of the wider, evidentialinstitutional and supra-institutional socio-economic debate. Watson (2006) highlightsthe problem of the ‘product’ i.e. the overallHE experience, failing to change in responseto the imperative of widening participation,creating what is in effect an elite systemtrying to accommodate universal or masseducation.

In conclusion the author identifies a problemin sustaining an argument for wideningparticipation from incomplete, incongruousand incoherent empirical evidence, andseeks to encourage a wider debate whichincludes consideration of a culturallyresponsive pedagogy for HE.

ReferencesBlanden, J. & Machin, S., 2007. RecentChanges in Intergenerational Mobility inBritain: Report for Sutton Trust. [Online]Available at:http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/mainreport.pdf [Accessed on 20 February2008].

Brown, T. and Jones, L. (2001) ActionResearch and Postmodernism: Congruenceand Critique. Philadelphia: OU Press.

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Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of a theory ofPractice. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Bourdieu, P., 1986. Forms of Capital. in A.H.Halsey et al. Eds. Education, Culture,Economy Society. 1997. New York: OxfordUniversity Press. Ch. 2.

Bruner, J.S., 1990. Acts of Meaning,Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cantle, E., 2006a. Review of CommunityCohesion in Oldham. Report of Institute ofCommunity Cohesion. Coventry: CoventryUniversity.

Cantle, E., 2006b. Parallel Lives. Eurozine,[Online] Available at:http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-newsitem-en.html. [Accessed onFebruary 18 2008].

Dale, A., 2002. Social Exclusion of Pakistaniand Bangladeshi Women.Sociological Research Online, 7(3), [Online]Available at:http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/3/dale.html. [Accessed on February 18 2008].

House of Commons Committee of PublicAccounts. 2008. Staying the course: theretention of students on higher educationcourses. Tenth Report of Session 2007–08.[Online] Available at:<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/322/322.pdf> [Accessed: 20 February 2008].

Halsey et al., 1997. Education, Culture,Economy Society: New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

OECD (2007) Education at a Glance. [online]Available at<http://www.oecd.org/document/30/0,3343,en_2649_201185_39251550_1_1_1_1,00.html#websites> [accessed on 11/04/08].

Oldham Partnership, 2005. Oldham in profile.Monitoring the Oldham Community Strategy.Oldham: Oldham Partnership.

Scott, P., 1995. The Meaning of Mass Highereducation. Buckingham: SRHE OpenUniversity Press.

Tolley, J. & Rundle, J., 2006. A Review ofBlack and Minority Ethnic Participation inHigher Education: The National BMEEducation Strategy Group. Aim Higher[Online] Available at:http://www.actiononaccess.org/download.php?f=367 [Accessed on 11/04/08].

Watson, D., 2006. How to think aboutwidening participation in UK HigherEducation. Discussion paper for HEFCE.[Online] Available at:http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/RDreports/2006/rd13_06/ [Accessed on 11/04/08].

Winch, C. & Gingell, J., 1999. Key Conceptsin the Philosophy of Education. London:Routledge.

Wolf, A., 2002. Does Education Matter?Myths about education and economicgrowth. London: Penguin.

Yorke, M. & Longden, B., 2004. Retentionand Student Success in Higher Education.Cornwall: Open University Press.

Yorke, M. & Longden, B., 2006. The first yearexperience of higher education in the UK:Report of Phase 1 of a project funded by theHigher Education Academy.[Online] Availableat: www.heacademy.ac.uk/FYEsurvey.htm[Accessed on 11/04/08].

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Appendix One. The University CentreOldham, a campus of the University ofHuddersfield, is an innovative projectcombining educational development throughwidening participation with objectives forurban and social regeneration. It involvescombined funding from HEFCE, andRegional Development Agencies, and withEuropean regeneration funds in SouthYorkshire for its sister site in Barnsley. Theobjective is to take HE to students in theirown communities rather than rely on thestudents travelling to HE (which they areclearly not doing).So far the overallheadcount increase over 3 years is 34%, andthe ethnic mix in the centre is diverse,representing the local and wider region. Thisapproach connects Tinto’s (1993) model withthe risk factors identified by Yorke andLongden, (2006) whilst in addition acceptingthat no individual intervention or approachhas any specific evidential basis forimproving widening access to orparticipation in HE. What it does offer is away for teachers and institutions to think in alearner-centred way, recognising thataspiration raising for example is not aboutencouraging a well qualified but poor ‘A’level student to travel to a prestigiousuniversity, but that a decision to choose alocally available course can be a good, life-affirming choice.

Figure 1 is based on a model derived fromHEFCE, provides a framework for courseteams to consider the range of strategicinterventions and related activities designedand integrated into the management of theprovision at University Centre Oldham(UCO), each taking into account theindividual student and his/her journey fromaspiration, through to access, participation,persistence and achievement in HE. Specificinterventions include:

Aspiration raising: • Providing information and promoting

awareness about higher educationopportunities to potential students inschools, colleges, communities andworkplaces.

Pre-entry activities: • supporting students to develop the

confidence, skills and knowledge to applyto HE and to make the transition aseffectively as possible through informationsessions, taster activities, pre-induction,competitions, student support liaison etc.

Admissions: • ensuring that the process of applying to

and being selected for higher education is‘fair’.

First term/semester: • the transition to higher education is

difficult for all students, but especially forthose with additional needs or with morelimited family support. Central to thisprocess are the induction arrangements -providing information about academicexpectations and cultures, institutionalsystems and welfare support, andfacilitating the development of socialnetworks, particularly for students whoare not able to participate in traditionalstudent activities. Effective transition canhelp to improve rates of initial retentionand ongoing success.

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Figure 1: Student Lifecycle UCO

Maintenance and moving through thecourse:• pedagogy, curriculum and assessment,

finance and part-time employment,student services etc may all enhance orinhibit student retention and success.

Progression: • to the following year, employment and/or

postgraduate study. There is evidence ofdiscrimination in progressionopportunities for students from under-represented groups and thus institutionscan prepare for and support theprogression of graduates.

Academic tutors at the University CentreOldham are currently evaluating their currentcourse design, using the student lifecyclemodel as an audit tool. The intention is toidentify aspects of good practice that can beevidenced with improved retention,attainment and progression data, respondingto the specific needs of students living,working and studying in Oldham and thelocal area. Evidence is already pointing toperformance and attainment levelscontinuing to improve, but there is no roomfor complacency and the teaching andlearning ethos at the University CentreOldham is at the heart of a major shift inexpectation and aspiration for staff andstudents alike.

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IntroductionWidening participation in higher education isa key part of the government’s educationpolicy in the United Kingdom (UK) asevidenced by the strategic aims of both theDepartment for Innovation, Universities andSkills (DIUS) and the Higher EducationFunding Council for England (HEFCE). Thefocus of these aims is the need to increasethe skills of the UK workforce so as tocompete effectively in the global market(Leitch, 2006). In order to increaseparticipation in higher education it isimportant to highlight ways of giving accessto those individuals who would not usuallythink of taking up this option. Whilst someyoung people leave their secondary schoolto go onto university education, a largenumber leave school to join the workforce.Learning is a legitimate workplace activityand for a wide range of people it is wherethey continue to develop their knowledgeand skills after they have left full timeeducation. Real work experiences are

considered invaluable for full-time universitystudents as it enables them to carry outresearch activities and helps them to gainimportant skills in finding solutions to actualproblems as they arise. This paper putsforward the viewpoint that that it is equallyvalid to develop links between learning atwork and higher education for those who arebeginning their learning journeys in theworkplace. To be a successful practitioner itis essential to gain higher level skills andknowledge in such areas as complexproblem-solving, decision-making andcreating new innovations (SchŒn, 1987).Such skills and knowledge can be used asthe basis of building links with university-level learning outcomes. Wideningparticipation through workplace learning cantherefore be achieved through enablingstudents to reflect on their own workexperiences and through the support givenby tutors who are able to develop positivelearning relationships.

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Widening participation through workplace learning

7. Widening participation through workplace learning

Morag Harvey, The Open University. [email protected]

Summary The Centre for Outcomes-Based Education (COBE) at the Open University (OU) has beencarrying out research and development into work-based learning for the last seven years.These developments have been based on the premise that successful practitioners in theworkplace recognise their self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) and learning in the workplace enhancesthe performance of practitioners (Argyris & Sch_n, 1974). We have found that wideningparticipation by enabling students to use their work-based learning as a basis for higher levelstudy can be both motivating and rewarding. In particular learners who can relate their furtherstudies to their own experience of finding solutions to work-related problems have a firmfoundation on which to continue their learning journeys. A key aspect of facilitating wideningparticipation through workplace learning is the role of the tutor. Although summativeassessment has a necessary place within higher education study, we have found that tutorswho are supporting workplace learners need to be particularly aware of the way that formativeassessment in the form of tutor feedback can support and develop students in their learningjourneys.

Keywords widening participation / work-based learning / tutor feedback / formativeassessment / student motivation

Work-based learningOur research and development within COBE,at the OU, has included approaches that relyon generic work-based learning frameworkswhich can be applied across a range ofoccupations. Our generic support modelenables learners to negotiate support withintheir own workplace whilst OU tutors supportthem in their HE studies. Such frameworkshave been designed for workplaces whereobservation of competencies is not requiredand where learning is the focus. Ourresearch has also highlighted the importanceof having work-based learning approachesthat take account of a variety of occupationalstandards which require face-to-faceassessment in the work setting: for example,professions such as teaching and nursing.Our aim has been to enable wideningparticipation by linking work experience witheducation (Dewey, 1938). In developing newwork-based curriculum initiatives we havesort to provide flexible routes to learningachievements. As successful practitionersrecognise their self-efficacy and possessskills and knowledge at a range of levels wehave taken this as a relevant way to provideflexible routes into higher education.

Self-beliefsThe concept of self-efficacy, that is, a beliefin one’s own capabilities, was developed inBandura’s (1977) publication of ‘Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory ofBehavioural Change’. This concept isrelevant to learning in the workplace assuccessful practitioners will have needed todevelop the abilities to cope with a widerange of different work-based learningsituations. For example practicalprofessionals such as electricians andplumbers are often required to use theirexisting knowledge to research into ways ofdeveloping new solutions to problems asthey arise (Harvey & Norman, 2007).

Practitioners also rely on their social andcultural understanding of their local contextsto apply their knowledge in the most

effective ways. Self-efficacy beliefs havebeen the focus of a wide range ofeducational research, particularly in the topicof academic motivation (Pintrich &DeGroot,1991; Relich et al., 1986). In fact ithas been suggested that self-efficacy iscrucial to motivation and learning (Margolis,2005), and self-beliefs have been linked toeducational performances (Multon et al.,1991). Although many of these studies havefocussed on children’s academicachievements, a study by Hendry et al.(2005) suggests that self-efficacy is arelevant area of interest for tutors who areattempting to support students in their highereducation learning. In the case of wideningparticipation through work-based learning,tutors will be able to build on the beliefs ofsuccessful parishioners.

Personal perspectives relating to individuals’beliefs about themselves and others, andresearch into the general concept of self-efficacy can be compared with Dweck’s(1999) more specific view of self-theoriesthat suggests unsuccessful learningexperiences, rather than successfulexperiences, may mean that students aremore motivated to overcome learningproblems as they will have learnt differentways already to solve any difficulties thatarise. This approach disputes the view thatsuccess always develops greater confidenceand that confidence always supportssuccess (Norman & Hyland, 2003). This viewof self-beliefs is different from a moregeneralised approach to self-efficacy whichsuggests that those who have a strong beliefin their own capabilities can apply that beliefto a wide range of situations (Luszczynska etal., 2005). Dweck’s approach can be relatedto the experience of work-based learnerswho have had to deal with learning issues inrelation to their workplace. In finding outhow to manage situations that arise in theirworkplaces work-based learners are likely tohave had to overcome a series ofunsuccessful experiences in order to findsuccessful ways of creating relevant

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solutions. This suggests that they will havediscovered ways of copying with a variety oflearning experiences that could be verymotivating if they choose to progress intohigher education study.

Motivation, Emotions and Tutor FeedbackA study by Dembo & Seli (2004) suggeststhat researchers into educational issues havefailed to recognise that motivation has amajor impact on approaches to study andlearning. By providing those workers whohave been motivated through theirexperiences of learning in the workplace achance to progress into higher educationstudy it is possible to develop meaningfulwidening participation opportunities. It isacknowledged that not all learners will findthis opportunity motivating, but for thosewho are motivated work-based learning canoffer real benefits in terms of learningprogression because valuable learningactivities have already been experienced.Motivation has been shown to be more thatjust a single, universal experience.Researchers have identified intrinsicmotivation, i.e. satisfaction in performance,and extrinsic motivation, i.e. satisfaction inachievement, and these have been seen insome studies as opposing viewpoints and inother studies as different points along thesame continuum (Hayamizu, 1997). Somotivations are key areas of concern fortutors who are striving to supporteducational attainment and success(McGivney, 2000). Tutors need to take themotivational needs of their learners intoaccount when they are providing formativeassessment in the form of feedback on theirassignments. In the case of work-basedlearners, tutors will need to find out about thetypes of workplace experiences that learnershave encountered, how their workplace hasinfluenced their practice and how they haveovercome any problems that have arisen.

Studies into formative assessment havesuggested that tutor feedback is an

important source of motivation (Ecclestone &Pryor, 2002). Other research shows thatemotion is strongly linked to motivation andplays an equally important part in howstudents relate to their learning relationshipswith their tutors (Meyer & Turner, 2002;Schutz & DeCuri, 2002). In view of this, tutorfeedback needs to be appropriate andmeaningful for the individual learner who isreceiving it. Without the capacity topersonalise and individualise feedback totake account of learners’ perceptions(Worthington, 2002) and emotional variety(Pekrun et al., 2002) and to use theopportunity to motivate and support work-based learners, the tutor will be unable tomeet individual expectations and needs.

Implications for Tutors’ PracticeThere has been a wide range of interest fromresearchers and higher educationpractitioners in formative approaches toassessment that can motivate learners’engagement with learning and improve theireducational achievement (Black & Wiliam,1998; Ecclestone & Pryor, 2002). Taras(2001) suggests that adults can be helped toform positive views of their learning abilitiesthrough particular types of tutor’ feedback.Higgins et al., (2001) found that students lookfor feedback to help them understand theirlearning in a ‘deep way’ which supports theview that feedback should be ‘designed as atool for learning’ so that it can be related to alearner’s individual understanding andreactions to feedback (Gijbels et al., 2005).This is particularly relevant for work-basedlearners who are trying to move frompractice-based learning to more formal, text-based learning.

Through the use of formative assessment,which removes the stress of trying to gainhigh grades, work-based learners can beguided to achieve successful highereducation outcomes and to progress theirlearning. Those who are new to study athigher education level need the appropriatesupport and guidance in order to acquire the

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necessary skills to successfully completeassessments at this level. Formativeassessment has been found to have aconstructive influence on learning weightedagainst other features of teaching.Furthermore it has been suggested that tutorfeedback can have a positive effect onindividual’s views of their learningcapabilities and for the work-based learnerwho is trying to understand the requirementsof higher education it is essential that theyform a positive opinion of their own learningabilities. Encouraging an individual’sconfidence in learning situations helps toincrease motivation and this in turn leads to agreater likelihood of successful completionof HE study so work-based learners are morelikely to progress to other study options ifthey have had a good relationship with theirhigher education tutor which is based ontrust. Understanding how individualsperceive and react to feedback will helptutors clarify their own role in this process.

In order to understand the relationshipbetween motivation and feedback, Schutz &De Cuir (2002) highlighted the part played byemotions in the process of learning. Thisviewpoint is supported by Pekrun et al.(2002) who also emphasise the significanceof the wide range of ‘academic emotions’and their findings suggest that theseemotions are closely linked to individualmotivations and educational achievements.Learners’ feelings and emotions affect theirown perceptions and the way that tutorfeedback is received (Meyer & Turner, 2002).So whereas positive feelings can bemotivating, negative emotions can have theopposite effect (Boud, 1994). Whenconsidering the motivational and emotionalaspects of student-tutor relationships thereliance on trust as the basis for a sharedlearning experience is crucial (Curzon-Hobson, 2002). Trust in a learning

relationship can be described as a learner’sfaith in, and eagerness to comply with, theadvice of their tutor. Tutors need to beaware that this type of relationship involvesrisk and vulnerability (Rousseau et al., 1998)so that work-based learners can be givenappropriate learning support.

ConclusionWe have found that widening participation byenabling students to use their work-basedlearning as a basis for higher level study canbe both motivating and rewarding. Inparticular learners who can relate theirfurther studies to their own experience offinding solutions to work-related problemshave a firm foundation on which to continuetheir learning journeys. However, when tutorsare supporting work-based learners theyneed to be aware that workers may havedifferent self-beliefs about their own learningcapabilities. Successful practitioners arelikely to have developed the ability to copewith a wide range of different work-basedlearning situations and therefore have formedpositive beliefs about their own capabilities(Bandura, 1977). In contrast those workerswho have learnt how to overcomeunsuccessful experiences may have learnt arange of very valuable ways of overcominglearning problems and so may havedeveloped a range of useful learningstrategies (Dweck, 1999). Therefore a keyaspect of facilitating widening participationthrough workplace learning is the role of thetutor. We have found that tutors who aresupporting workplace learners need to beparticularly aware of the way that formativeassessment in the form of tutor feedback cansupport and develop students in theirlearning journeys. By building learningrelationships based on trust, tutors cansupport work-based learners in their learningjourneys into higher education study.

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ReferencesArgyris, C. & SchŒn, D., 1974. Theory inpractice: increasing professionaleffectiveness. San Fransico: Jossey Bass.

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Ecclestone, K. & Pryor, J., 2002 LearningCareers’ or ‘Assessment Careers’? Theimpact of Assessment Systems on Learning.British Educational Research Journal, 29(4),p.471-488.

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Hayamizu, T., 1997. Between Intrinsic andExtrinsic Motivation: Examination of Reasonsfor Academic Study based on the Theory ofInternalization. Japanese PsychologicalResearch: Blackwell Publishing.

Hendry, G., Heinrich, P., Lyon, P., Barratt, A.,Simpson, J., Hyde, S., Gonsalkorale, S.,Hyde, M. & Magaieth, S., 2005. Helpingstudents understand their learning styles:Effects on study self-efficacy, preference forgroup work, and group climate. EducationalPsychology 25(4), p.395-407.

Leitch, S., 2006. Leitch Review of Skills,Prosperity for all in the global economy –world class skills. London: H.M.Treasury.

Luszczynska, A., Gutierrez-Cona, B. &Schwarzer, R., 2005. General self-efficacy invarious domains of human functioning:Evidence from five countries. InternationalJournal of Psychology, 40(2), p.80-89.

Margolis, H., 2005. Increasing strugglinglearners’ self-efficacy: what tutors can doand say. Mentoring and Tutoring, 13(2),p.221-238.

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Multon, K. D., Brown, S.D., & Lent, R.W.,1991. Relation of self-efficacy beliefs toacademic outcomes: A meta-analyticinvestigation. Journal of CounsellingPsychology, 38, p.30-38.

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IntroductionHistorically, motivation was viewed as some(quantifiable) characteristic between theendpoints of ‘motivated’ and ‘not motivated’.Furthermore, motivation (within educationalcontexts) was viewed as the tutor’sresponsibility. These two ideas are logicallyconnected. If motivation is quantifiable andobjective, it may be possible to alter it. Giventhat the tutor’s role was construed,historically, as the ultimate shaper of studentachievement, nobody should be surprisedthat this ‘fount of all knowledge’ couldmotivate students.

These ideas are now under attack (Boekaerts& Minnaert, 1999; Boekaerts, 2003). Ratherthan being a quantifiable characteristic,motivation is multifaceted. It is both dynamicand context sensitive. Students can bemotivated in multiple ways. And theirmotivations are inherently changeable anddomain specific. What has become evidentis that students themselves mediate theirmotivation (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002) ratherthan being passive and pliable in response toother’s attempts to motivate them.

That motivation is dynamic and contextsensitive and is mediated by the student, hastwo important implications. It is amisconception that:

• Some students are motivated but othersare not. Whilst there may be studentswho are not motivated to behave in theway that tutors would like them to behave,we cannot say that they are notmotivated. Rather they are motivated tobehave in ways that the tutor might notlike.

• One person can directly motivate another.Motivation is a subjective experience.Individuals are motivated by differentthings and so experience motivationpersonally and probably differently. Thereis no guaranteed equivalence betweenwhat people think/believe motivates themand behaviours that allegedly evidencemotivation.

Because motivation is not a ‘thing’ that wecan see, the explanations for why peoplebehave as they do (which is the essentialmeaning of motivation) are themselves at anabstract level. The key constructs to be

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Maintaining Motivation: implications for widening student participation

8. Maintaining Motivation: implications for widening studentparticipation

Effie Maclellan, University of Strathclyde. [email protected]

Summary The focus of this paper is to derive some implications of motivation for widening studentparticipation. This consideration is provoked by the expansion of student numbers in highereducation which, apparently, has two related manifestations. One is the increased numbers ofstudents who enter higher education with non-conventional qualifications (Dart, 1997) and theother is the preponderance of students who seem reluctant to embrace practices associatedwith increased cognitive participation (Simpson, 2008). While motivation is thought to be centralin explaining learning and achievement behaviour (Spinath, 2005), there is a growing body ofliterature to suggest that what motivates some students may alienate others (Harlen & DeaconCrick, 2003). This is perhaps complicated by the realisation that motivation is a psychologicalconstruct and is not synonymous with the actual behaviours involved in a particular activity(Hufton, Elliott & Illushin, 2002).

Keywords Motivation / learning cycle / goal-orientation / interest / self-efficacy /attributions

used in this paper are goal orientation,volition, interest and attributions, asinfluences in the episodes of the learningcycle (Maclellan, 2008).

Episodes of the Learning CycleThe process of engagement in formaleducation typically operates in a cycle ofepisodes: a learning task (or series of tasks)is determined; the student attends to thetask (usually over continuing time); and thecompletion of the task is marked by somesort of feedback about student performance.The episodes presuppose interdependencein the cycle. For example without somenotion of how the task is or was being carriedout, feedback is a meaningless idea.Equally, continuation or completion of a tasknecessarily implies that at some point thetask was determined. Finally, (rational)determinations of tasks imply a necessaryrelationship to previous learning. Theepisodes of Task Determination, TaskContinuation and Task Completion providethe structural framework within which toconsider motivation.

Task DeterminationIn formal higher education, students followcourses that have been planned andspecified in advance so that they can becoherent, developmental and at anappropriate level of cognitive demand. Inpedagogical terms this is typically translatedinto tutor determination of task. Tutors thushave learning intentions and achievement-directed behaviour in mind when determiningtasks. But students also have reasons forengaging in such tasks (Oettingen, Hönig &Gollwitzer, 2000). These goal orientationsare important because they underpinstudents’ definitions of their owncompetence (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).Simply put, these orientations are in terms ofthe mastery or performance goals. Students with mastery goals definecompetence in terms of self-definedimprovement. In so doing, they variouslyexperience enhanced interest in learning,

more positive attitudes toward learning,errors as informational, high levels ofacademic engagement and effort,perseverance in the face of challenges andfocussed help-seeking (Pintrich, 2003). Withperformance goals, on the other hand,students are more likely to engage in self-handicapping behaviours, such as cheating,avoiding help when they need it, andwithdrawing effort. They may view errors asindicating a lack of ability, experience highlevels of anxiety, exert less effort, place lessvalue on tasks, give up in the face ofdifficulty, and ultimately demonstrate lowerlevels of achievement (Pintrich, 2003).

However, it cannot be assumed thatstudents always have a mastery orientation,nor indeed should they (Elliot, Shell, Henry &Maier, 2005). Basic psychological needs ofautonomy, competence and socialrelatedness (Krapp, 2003) may result in aperfectly proper preference for performancegoals and indeed, at any one time bothmastery and performance goals can co-exist.It is not therefore the intention tocharacterise performance goals inexclusively negative terms. However, thegeneral desirability of mastery goalorientations and the maladaptive possibilitiesarising from performance-avoidance goalorientations draw attention to their pivotalrole in establishing the direction ofsubsequent learning.

Implication 1Because of the possibility that students’ andtutors’ intentions for learning may not becongruent, it follows that both tutor andstudent to be explicit about their perspectivegoal orientations, possibly to the point ofestablishing multiple and even conflictinggoals for learning. Without such discoursestudents will continue to believe that theyhave no role in task determination. Explicitand systematic consideration of task-determination might help students to identifyboth task-specific, target goals and high-level purpose goals without which motivation

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can be no more than a vague aspiration.Although goal orientation is important forinitial student ‘ownership’ of learning, it is ofitself insufficient.

Task ContinuationOnce the task has been determined,maintaining focus and effort in theachievement of goals despite potentialdistractions is necessary. One conditionwhich engenders student volition (Corno,1994) is interest; a construct that is moreinvolved than lay usage might suggest. Theappeal of an activity (Krapp & Lewalter,2001), rather than the individual’s personalpreference for the activity (Mitchell, 1993), isknown as situational interest. Situationalinterest includes dimensions of novelty,challenge and the attentional demands of thetask (Chen, Darst & Pangrazi, 2001).Situational interest is of critical importance informal education (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000)because it is this that provides the basis forincreasing domain knowledge. Situational interest that triggers engagementmay lead to personal interest which is theconstant and consistent interaction with aparticular domain. It is personal interest thatallows recognition of meaning in a learningtask, leads to the use of deeper cognitivestrategies (and thus to meaningful learningbehaviours), is associated with increasedattention and persistence, promotes long-term storage of knowledge, and providesmotivation for continued engagement inlearning (Chen et al, 2001). These features ofpersonal interest depend on domainknowledge. Thus it is domain knowledgewhich is the essence of the interest; whichmight seem counter-intuitive in everydayparlance where interest is characterised asan affective quality of engagement. However, while interest is desirable,unbridled interest can make it harder to beadaptive so students need to articulateinterest with overall goals (Heckhausen &Farruggia, 2003). Student volition can besupported by adaptive help-seeking(Newman, 1994). That people avoid seeking

help even when to do so might solvedifficulty has been explained as (student)reluctance either because they perceivehelp-seeking to be inconsistent withpersonal needs for autonomy or a(threatening) sign of incompetence (Butler,1998). However, the help most frequentlysought is process-related information:information that enables students to build onwhat they themselves are trying to work out,rather than seeking confirmation of previouswork or correct answers (Newman, 1998).Students with strong performance goals, incontexts that emphasise performance goals,are particularly reluctant to seek help whilethose working in a mastery oriented contextare more willing to seek help, suggesting thatcontextual variables may well be powerful(Newman, 1998). To maintain motivationthroughout the duration of a task studentsneed to be willing to acknowledge personaldifficulty and desire interaction with moreknowledgeable others. Further they needgoals and beliefs that are associated withpersonal agency and control, a desire forchallenge and tolerance for task difficulty(Newman, 2002).

Implication 2Task-continuation will be ideally maintainedwhen students experience the activity’sdomain knowledge to be psychologicallysatisfying. Situational and personal interestarticulate with aspects of task-determinationin non-trivial ways and to maintain motivationthis interest must be managed by both tutorand student, interactively. One mechanismto be invoked in such management isadaptive help-seeking. The judiciousbalance of volition, interest and help-seekingneeded to continue with a task is an aspectof pedagogical practice that is worthy offurther study and elaboration.

Task CompletionTask completion can be an opportunity toreflect on progress and achievement or it canbe viewed as a time-ordered, evaluativemarker, which is largely in the gift of the

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tutor. These different views will have varyingeffects on subsequent motivation andachievement (Struthers, Menec, Schonwetter& Perry, 1996; Struyven, Dochy & Janssens,2003) since the interpretation of events ismediated by the attributions people make ofthe locus of control, stability, andcontrollability of the tasks to be completed(Weiner, 1979; 1985). Students drawing froman internal locus of control, viewing‘success’ and ‘failure’ as contingent on theirown behaviour, have greater potential forhigh-achievement than do students whodeny the importance of their own agency andattribute successful task-completion toexternal factors that they may feel areunchangeable(Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).Students who do not actually complete tasksor complete tasks with low expectations ofsuccess and who experience a continuingcycle of failure, conclude that continuedengagement serves only to confirm theirfailure. Regrettable as this may be, it is adifficult cycle to penetrate when learners tryhard and fail or when tutors’ own efficacy isnot strong in respect of influencing learners(Dweck, 2000). Strengthening the internallocus of control is therefore a pedagogicalconcern to change views of intelligence froma fixed and unchangeable trait to amalleable, improvable skill (Dweck, 2000),and to improve self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997).

Experiencing reward through effort is oneway of improving efficacy. Such masteryexperiences, however, must not be at the‘cost’ of carrying out a task that isinsufficiently challenging (Dweck, 2000),which would attenuate the need to beeffortful. Similarly encouragement canimprove efficacy but the tutor is not beingsupportive if the encouragement is notcalibrated to realistic levels ofaccomplishment in terms of task componentcapabilities. Effusive, non task-specificpraise is meaningless, and misleading whenit causes students to overestimate theirabilities (Maclellan, 2005). Although it might

appear to be common sense that tutorsshould say what they can to reassurestudents who appraise themselvesnegatively, blunderbuss reassurance may becounter-productive. Ego-involving feedbackis much less likely to encourage students toengage with the essentials of the task (Butler,1987; Butler & Neuman, 1995), underlininglater work (Struyven et al, 2003) that anxiousstudents benefit from their attention beingfocused on the assessment task demands,rather than on their emotional pre-occupations which may actually attenuateperseverance. The potential power ofstudents’ own attributions suggests thatgreater attention be paid to the students’views on the tasks to be done and on thejudgements of their achievements. It mayalso be appropriate to invoke attributiontraining whilst recognising that we havelimited access to our own mental processes(Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) and also recognisingthe pervasiveness of the self-servingattributional bias in which people make moreinternal, stable, and global attributions forpositive events than for negative events.

Implication 3By requiring students to be much more pro-active in task-determination, continuationand completion, they would have theopportunity to take ownership of the criteriafor assessment; to have increasedresponsibility for their learning; to becomeself-monitoring and independent; to realisethat their judgements are respected; and toencourage critical self-reflection on learningbehaviours. However, such practices can beemotionally challenging and compromisedby reliability and validity issues. Thesedifficulties may cement emotionally immatureattitudes (such as low frustration tolerance ortutor dependence) towards learning,perpetuate expectations of low or minimalstandards and privilege the public monitoringof academic performance (with possiblyhumiliating connotations).

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ConclusionIf students are to maintain motivationthroughout the learning cycle, tutors do haveto consider their practices such thatstudents’ and tutors’ respective goals can bediscussed, interest and volition aresustained, and views on thecompletion/outcome tasks feed intosubsequent goals and practices. Motivationis a dynamic phenomenon which interactswith all episodes in the learning cycle.However, what is also implicit in all that hasbeen said is that students have aconsiderable responsibility to progress theirown learning. If it is tutor practice to clarifythe subject matter, offer examples, orsuggest arguments for or against a point ofview, the students’ need to think isminimised. If students view the tutor’scognition as essential for the development oftheir own skills and knowledge, they arepositioned in a set of expectations andpractices which reduce their motivation.Equally students left to determine both whatand how to learn without any criteria to judgetheir progress can be readily de-motivated,making a nonsense of formal, highereducation as a planned and designedsystem. The motivational skills of tutorsreside in the practices that they employ tosupport and scaffold students’ developmenttowards autonomous learning behaviours.

ReferencesBandura, A. 1997. Self-Efficacy: the exerciseof control, New York: W. H. Freeman &Company.

Boekaerts, M. & Minnaert, A., 1999. Self-regulation with respect to informal learning.International Journal of EducationalResearch, 31(6), p.533-44.

Boekaerts, M. 2003. Towards a model thatintegrates motivation, affect and learning.Development and Motivation, BJEPMonograph Series II(2), p.173-89.

Butler, R., 1987. Task-involving and ego-involving properties of evaluation: effects ofdifferent feedback conditions on motivationalperceptions, interest and performance.Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(4),p.474-482.

Butler, R., 1998. Determinants of help-seeking: relations between perceivedreasons for classroom help-avoidance andhelp-seeking behaviors in an experimentalcontext. Journal of Educational Psychology,90(4), p.630-43.

Butler, R. & Neuman, O., 1995. Effects oftask and ego-achievement goals on help-seeking behaviours and attitudes. Journal ofEducational Psychology, 87(2), p.261-271.

Chen, A., Darst, P. & Pangrazi, R., 2001. Anexamination of situational interest and itssources. British Journal of EducationalPsychology, 71, p.383-400.

Corno, L., 1994. Student volition andeducation: outcomes, influences, andpractices. In D. Schunk, & B. Zimmerman(Eds.) Self-Regulation of Learning andPerformance Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.p. 229-51.

Dart, B., 1997. Adult learners’ metacognitivebehaviour in higher education. In P.Sutherland (Ed.) Adult Learning: A reader,London: Kogan Page. pp 30-43.

Dweck, C., 2000. Self-Theories, London:Psychology Press.

Elliot, A., Shell, M., Henry, K. & Maier, M.,2005. Achievement goals, performancecontingencies, and performance attainment:an experimental test. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 97(4), p.630–40.

Harlen, W. & Deakin Crick, R., 2003. Testingand motivation for learning. Assessment inEducation, 10(2), p.169–207.

Heckhausen, J. & Farruggia, S., 2003.Developmental regulation across the lifespan: a control-theory approach andimplications for secondary education,Development and Motivation, 2, p.85-102.

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Hidi, S. & Harackiewicz, J., 2000. Motivatingthe academically unmotivated: a criticalissue for the 21st century. Review ofEducational Research, 70(2), p.151-179.

Hufton, N.R., Elliott, J.G. Illushin, L., 2002.Educational motivation and engagement:qualitative accounts from three countries.British Educational Research Journal, 28(2),p.267-291.

Krapp, A. & Lewalter, D., 2001. Developmentof interests and interest-based motivationalorientations: a longitudinal study invocational school and work-settings. In S.Volet & S. Järvelä (Eds.) Motivation inLearning Contexts, London: Pergamon.p.209-32.

Krapp, A., 2003. Interest and humandevelopment: an educational-psychologicalperspective. Development and Motivation,BJEP Monograph Series II(2), p.57-84.

Maclellan, E., 2005. Academic achievement:the role of praise in motivating students.Active Learning in Higher Education, 6,p.194-206.

Maclellan, E., in press for 2008. Thesignificance of motivation in student-centredlearning: a reflective case study. Teaching inHigher Education.

Mitchell, M., 1993. Situational interest: itsmultifaceted structure in the secondaryschool mathematics classroom. Journal ofEducational Psychology, 85(3), p.424-36.

Newman, R., 1994. Adaptive help seeking: astrategy of self-regulated learning. In D.Schunk, & B. Zimmerman (Eds.) Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance,Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. p. 283-301.

Newman, R., 1998. Students’ help seekingduring problem solving: influence of personaland contextual goals. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 90(4), p.644-58.

Newman, R., 2002. What do I need to do tosucceed? In A. Wigfield & J. Eccles (Eds.)Development of Achievement Motivation,London: Academic Press. p.285-306.

Nisbet R. & Wilson, T., 1977. Telling morethan we can know: verbal reports on mentalprocesses. Psychological Review, 84(3),p.231-259.

Oettingen, G., Hönig, G. & Gollwitzer, P.,2000. Effective self-regulation of goalattainment. International Journal ofEducational Research, 33, p.705-32.

Pintrich, P., 2003. Multiple goals and multiplepathways in the development of motivationand self-regulated learning. Developmentand Motivation, BJEP Monograph Series II(2)p.137-153.

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Simpson, B., 2008. In an age of memorysticks, precious little knowledge adheres.Times Higher Education (THE) 22-28 May,p.24-5.

Spinath, B., 2005. Development andmodification of motivation and self-regulationin school contexts. Learning and Instruction,15(2), p.85-86.

Struthers, C., Menec, V., Schonwetter, D. &Perry, R., 1996. The effects of perceivedattributions, action control, and creativity oncollege students’ motivation andperformance. Learning and IndividualDifferences, 8(2), p.121-39.

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Introduction

The Preparatory Learning ContextLaing and Robinson (2003, p.178) report thatthe policy of widening participation in theUnited Kingdom has created a situation inwhich ‘a higher proportion of enteringstudents do not have recent experience ofcontinuous and intensive study’. This hasresulted in students arriving at universitywithout the academic and technical skillsexpected of traditional learners. Parnham(2001, p.58) suggests that institutions needto recognise students’ personalcircumstances and respond to individualneeds, providing both individual and groupsupport for learners.

The new entrants are placed under increasedpressure as they have to acquire these skillsat a time when they are also adapting touniversity life and beginning their subjectrelated studies. This causes a great deal ofstress, compounding their difficulties withtime management, which tends to reach

crisis point in the period immediately beforethe first assignment is due to be submitted.The School of Health Sciences and SocialWork, at the University of Portsmouth,recognised the skills gap at an early stageand responded by setting up a series of sixpre-entry workshops for students who wereconsidering entering Foundation degrees inthe school. These have been successful, butare limited to potential students for thatschool. In addition, the limited time spanmade it difficult to cover individual needs;places are limited and shift work patterns inthe NHS have meant that few participantsare able to attend all of the sessions.

The Foundation Direct team recognised thatflexible pre-entry provision was required ifthey were to help prepare students for therealities of academic life without the stressinvolved in delivering study skills input whilestudents are involved in course relatedstudy. Thus, a preparatory learning contextwas developed for new students in the pre-entry phase.

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Hop, skip and a jump: a three step approach to supporting independent learners

9. Hop, skip and a jump: a three step approach to supportingindependent learners

Carina Buckley, Sarah Fielding and Judith Martin, University of [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Summary Foundation degree students often enter university after a considerable period of time out ofeducation, bringing anxieties and expectations that must be met and overcome for them toengage and succeed. Foundation Direct is a CETL dedicated to supporting Foundation degreestudents at the University of Portsmouth. New students frequently consult with FoundationDirect’s drop-in centre on a wide range of academic and technical skills that traditional newentrants would usually have already gained prior to entry into higher education. However, moresignificantly for this paper, the centre also provides three learning contexts with tailored layersof support to guide mature, widening participation students through their degree. By combiningthe three moves, making a slightly bigger leap each time, it is possible to cover a longerdistance than a single long jump.

Keywords Foundation degrees / widening participation / learning preparation / mentoring

As Foundation degrees are work basedlearning courses, participants tend to be infull-time or virtually full-time employment andmany have family responsibilities. Thus itwas necessary to find a flexible means ofdelivering the programme to accommodateall potential participants, and on-line deliveryfulfilled this requirement. Although it wasapparent that many potential students didnot have the technical skills needed to usethis effectively, it seemed to be an efficientmeans of enabling them to gain the skills andconfidence that they would need toparticipate in on-line learning once theyjoined their course. However, to ensure theirability to participate it was important that itshould be delivered in a supported way thatwould prevent exclusion through a lack ofprior technical skills.

The result was a blended delivery with on-line resources supported by a pre-entryteam. Resources are posted on the pre-entrywebsite and participants can either startusing them independently or contact thenamed pre-entry team to arrange apersonalised, guided introductory session.The pre-entry team are available to givesupport throughout the pre-entry period.However, learners are encouraged tobecome more independent throughout thepre-entry period. Participants only need towork on their areas of need, rather thanstudying all of the materials and guidance isgiven about which areas are mostappropriate for particular courses.

The supported on-line provision is blendedwith taster days when participants are ableto attend the Foundation Direct centre,participate in workshops and meet keymembers of university support staff. Thusthey are able to gain new skills, get a taste ofuniversity life and meet the people who willbe available to them when they start theircourse.

The benefits of preparationThe pre-entry provision helps participants tobuild their generic, basic, technical andacademic skills and to become independentlearners. Thus the pre-entry period givesthem an opportunity to concentrate onthemselves, their skills and their learningbefore joining courses where they will beexpected to reflect on their subjectknowledge and professional practice. Thispreparatory learning context is designed toprepare them for joining a community oflearning which will be part of their experiencewhen they enter the second stage affirminglearning context. It is hoped that thosestudents who have participated in thepreparatory learning context will becomeleading figures in forming the community oflearning and encouraging and supportingtheir fellow students.

From a Preparatory to an AffirmingLearning ContextThe pre-entry programme at FoundationDirect is called Pathways, as it is planned thatit will encompass more than the pre-entryphase and will guide the students throughtheir whole degree. One possible pathwaythat newly enrolled students might follow isthrough Foundation Direct’s ProfessionalDevelopment Unit, or PDU. This assessedform of personal development planning (PDP)is delivered on-line and helps to maintain themomentum gained during the pre-entryphase. At present the PDU is incorporatedinto the curriculum of three Foundationdegrees – Education Administration, EarlyYears Care and Education (EYCE) andGovernment – with another two degrees inCreative Technologies and Leadership andManagement due to take it up in the 2008-09academic year. It is designed to place astudent’s academic and personaldevelopment within a professional context,and encourages them to better understandthe relationship between their workplacepractice and the underpinning theory theylearn at university by using a model of threeoverlapping circles (figure 1):

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Figure 1: The three domains of learning(after Barnett & Coate, 2005)

The new student begins by writing aBenchmark Statement, setting out what theyknow, and what they want to know, using themodel of three circles. Their BenchmarkStatement forms the basis for futurereflection and provides a means for thestudent to monitor progress and thereby gainconfidence. Since student anxiety is usuallyhighest and their continuation on the coursemost uncertain during the first semester(Laing & Robinson 2003, p.177), this is thepoint at which the initial period of reflectionand review takes place. The PDU thereforecreates a safe environment in which studentscan confirm their progress in knowledgeacquisition and its application.

The PDU mediates an affirming learningcontext in two ways; both are concernedwith moving the student into the centraloverlap of the three circles. Firstly, it has aprofessional perspective, helping the studentmake the link between what they are learningat university and how that is put into practicein the workplace. One 3rd year EYCE studentarticulated her position in the model byreporting that the work-based aspect of herdegree affirmed what she was doing in theworkplace and why she was doing it. Shefound that she was looking at and dealing

with the children in her care differently,because she was able to use the theory inthe context of her actions and those of thechildren and understand better why theywere behaving the way they were. Thisfeeling was echoed by a 2nd year student onthe same course, who similarly credited thePDU with explicitly requiring her to look ather own practice in light of her learning. Bothwomen found their confidence in theworkplace to have increased as a directresult of this new knowledge, and both hadstarted to take on a more assertive role withtheir colleagues.

Despite the fact that the PDU is focussed, asthe name suggests, on the professionaldevelopment of its students, it was muchmore common for students to report onchanges to their own sense of self and thekind of person they felt themselves to be. Inthis way, the PDU facilitates personalaffirmation and validation. Mostacknowledged the contribution of reflectivereview in their new-found and frequently-reported confidence. Another final yearEYCE student reported that writing theBenchmark statement and the periodicalreviews throughout the PDU was eye-opening because:

‘that’s how we know how far we’vetravelled so far through the PDU, bymaking you stop and look at where youwere at the beginning. It was amazing; youcan see the growth, even in one year’.

Her colleague noted that for part timestudents in particular, being able to gain thisreassurance of their progress was vital tokeeping them going on the course. Indeed,the students’ confidence has usuallydeveloped so much by the end of the firstyear of the degree that their Benchmarkstatements become paradoxically almost asource of embarrassment to them, so farhave they developed:

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‘At the end of my first year, when I readmy Benchmark, I was embarrassed by it!Even from this first year I’ve improved myessay writing and my marks have gone up’2nd year EYCE

By having this reflective structure to the unitin place, students are supported andencouraged separately from assignmentmarks and professional achievement. Thefocus is on them as an individual, thatsubject about which they are the expert. Thisaffirming learning context helps students touse their own experiences as a form ofsupport, enabling them to increase theircapacity to be an independent learner andsuccessful practitioner. The PDU recognisesthe importance of the personal through itspedagogy of interaction, collaboration andactive learning (Guldberg & Pilkington, 2006)and provides a structure and a means ofbeing part of a group. During the firstsemester students are guided in theformation of communities of learning, withthe aim of encouraging them to look on theirpeers as an additional learning resource.

The knowledge level of a community oflearning (or a community of practice)increases in proportion to the number ofmembers of that community who join indiscussions and knowledge sharing activities(Huang et al. 2007, p.620). Such acommunity is influenced by the participationof its members, and each individualparticipant’s contribution will reflect theirunderstanding of what is important (Tillema &Orland-Barak 2006, p.603). It is clearly in thestudents’ interests that as many of them aspossible feel able to involve themselves inknowledge sharing. Given the sharedexperience of reflection and review on thePDU, and the unit’s emphasis on discussionand conversation, the students have formedclose bonds and their learning – and generaluniversity experience – has benefited as adirect consequence:

‘The last three years we’ve been able tosupport each other. We’re quite open, sowe can say, “Have you thought of that?”And we don’t take offence. Sometimes atwork it’s a criticism, but because we’vegot that friendship here, you can’.3rd Year EYCE

‘I’ve become very close to some peoplewho I’ve done lots of group work with;we’ve had to do lots of grouppresentations, discussion and things, soyou do form quite close bonds’.2nd year EYCE

‘I think if I hadn’t had that support, I’dhave walked away’. 3rd year EYCE

The alternative can be an isolating andanxious experience. Two students followingthe Foundation degree in Applied MedicalTechnology are separated from the rest oftheir cohort by age (they are in their forties,compared to the school leavers whocomplete the class) and do not have theneutral mediation of the PDU to bring themall together. They rely only on each other andthe difference in their outlook compared tothose following a degree that utilises thePDU appears significant.

The reflection and collaboration supportedand guided by the PDU validates the learningexperiences of unsure students by helping totransform past anxieties and sources ofconfusion into a means for buildingconfidence and affirming their development.

Reflection and collaboration continue to bestrong themes in the third and final learningcontext; that of mentoring as an appliedlearning context. Mentoring can bedescribed as a ‘synergistic partnership’ (Ayo& Fraser 2008, p. 61) and it interlinks with,and overlaps, the previous two learningcontexts described. The fluid and dynamicnature of mentoring is a strength in terms ofits transferability and application, but aweakness with respect to attempting to pin

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down a singular definition encompassingboth the role and process. Ferrar (2004, p.54) notes, ‘Any relationshipbetween...mentor and learner is shaped bythe characteristics and personalities of thoseinvolved, and this adds further complicationsin attempting to define...mentoring’ but alsoacknowledges that some degree of clarity isnecessary in order to prevent ‘misalignedexpectations’.’

Mentoring overlaps with the preparatorylearning context in that a certain type ofmentor is able to initiate new students intothe culture of the academic institution.Although course teams report that theyprefer mentors not to comment on students’written academic work, many students seekguidance and feedback from their mentor onacademic conventions and interpretingassessment criteria. For students thesesometimes inscrutable rules and guidelinesare an important part of socialisation intoacademic culture, the traditional learning of“This is how things are done here”.

‘I think, where they were both graduatesthey knew what I should be aimingtowards…whereas if I’d had a colleaguewho hadn’t done the course or hadn’tdone…more relevant training, I think Iwould have struggled because theywouldn’t know the level of work I shouldbe producing.’ 1st year EYCE

Mentoring also overlaps with the affirminglearning context. When students are able toself-select their own mentor, they opt forsomeone they know and respect. Fewmentors receive financial recompense fortheir time; the majority participate voluntarily,altruistically citing a wish to help othersdevelop as their motivation. Students appearto value the investment and personalaffirmation of a mentor in their development.

‘I think I mentor every member of staff…’Business & Management mentor

‘It’s quite nice that even though you’ve gotpeople you are friends with at uni…whenyou get an assignment back it’s someonewho’s happy that you’ve done well.’1st year EYCE

Large numbers of students experiencing highlevels of anxiety in their first year represent aproblem for academic tutors in terms of time.Mentors with the ability to reliably commenton, or clarify, rules and criteria (not academiccontent or ‘worthiness’ of work) through theirown experience could be beneficial inrelieving these pressures. The reassurancesand affirmation provided by mentors indealing with low level socialisation (culturallearning) may have a significant effect onstudent retention.

‘I got really stuck…and I thought “I mightjust as well quit the course cause I don’tunderstand…this is the first term and I’mnot getting anywhere”…and she said ‘Thisis the level you should be workingtowards, this is the kind of language youshould be using...’ 1st year EYCE

Under the right conditions, mentoringprovides a unique learning context forreflection and collaboration between eachstudent and mentor. The actions andinteractions of a student cohort within thestructured framework of a unit can stilltrigger student anxiety in courses withstudents from relatively heterogeneousbackgrounds, such as Business andManagement and Learning Support. Whenstudents are asked to complete anassignment based on unique details of theirprofessional experiences, many students feelanxious if they are unable to comparesettings and experiences; in doing so theyfind common ground and reassurance fromtheir peers. Possibly this anxiety is reducedin courses with a more homogenous work-based background, such as paramedicscience. A mentor who is a practisingprofessional with very similar professionalexperience to the student (although not

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necessarily positioned in the work place) canfurther reduce student anxiety throughintensive, focused discourse, where theparticipants are on a more equal footing.

Mentoring practice is also reflexive, helpingthe students in examining their owndevelopment and practice. Many studentsdescribe ‘bouncing ideas’ off of theirmentors. Students can access theexperiences of the mentor as additionalsources of reflection, providing greateropportunities to practice applying theirtheoretical knowledge in the context of theirprofessional practice, without the need forsubmitting an assessed piece of work.

Evidence strongly suggests that most, if notall, students desire mentors who aregraduates or current students, due to theirunique experiences through a combination ofacademe and professional practice. Byraising the criteria of skills and knowledgerequired for mentoring, any pool of potentialmentors will be reduced. Foundation degreesare no longer in their infancy and growingnumbers of courses and applicants may helpto swell the population of potential mentors.However several foundation degrees reportproblems in recruiting sufficient mentors forstudents without raising the criteria to onlyinclude graduates or current students. Ifmentors with little to no HE experience are tobe recruited, training for such mentorsshould include clear guidance in how tointerpret the ‘rules’ of academic work and theaccompanying boundaries.

There is also evidence to indicate that beinginvolved in mentoring raises staff morale(Dimsdale, 2002; Pulsford, Boit & Owen,2002), encourages lifelong learning andincreases staff (in this context, student)retention (Dimsdale, 2002). There are now anumber of foundation degrees dedicated tocoaching and mentoring, although these aremostly all grounded in the field of education.

All of this suggests that if implemented,monitored and evaluated properly, mentoringcan have a significant impact on thedevelopment and retention of students.

ConclusionFoundation Direct has developed a threestep model of student support. Each learningcontext has been shown individually to havea positive impact on the student life course,by fostering a sense of growth, awarenessand confidence, and resulting in increasinglyindependent lifelong learners. The next stageof research intends to examine what impacthaving access to two or more of theselearning contexts over the course of theuniversity experience has on student identityand community. The intention is that allstudents end up in the sand. Some mightjump further than others, but they all land ontheir feet and achieve a personal best.

ReferencesAyo, L. & Fraser, C., 2008. The FourConstructs of Collegiality. InternationalJournal of Evidence Based Coaching andMentoring, 6(1), p.57-66.

Barnett, R. & Coate, K., 2005. Engaging thecurriculum in Higher Education. Maidenhead:Open University Press.

Dimsdale, P., 2002. Always there for you.Nursing Standard, 16 (23).

Ferrar, P., 2004. Defying Definition:Competences in Coaching and Mentoring.International Journal of Evidence BasedCoaching and Mentoring, 2(2), p.53-60.

Guldberg, K. & Pilkington, R., 2006. Acommunity of practice approach to thedevelopment of non-traditional learnersthrough networked learning. Journal ofComputer Assisted Learning, 22, p.159-171.

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Huang, N.-T., Wei, C.-C. & Chang, W.-K.,2007. Knowledge management: modellingthe knowledge diffusion in community ofpractice. Kybernotes, 36, p.607-621.

Laing, C. & Robinson, A., 2003. TheWithdrawal of Non-traditional Students:developing an explanatory model. Journal ofFurther and Higher Education, 27(2), p.175-185.

Parnham, J., 2001. Lifelong Learning: amodel for increasing the participation of non-traditional adult learners. Journal of Furtherand Higher Education, 25 (1), p.57-65.

Pulsford, D., Boit, K., & Owen, S., 2002. Arementors ready to make a difference? Asurvey of mentors’ attitudes towards nurseeducation. Nurse Education Today, 22,p.439-446.

Tillema, H. & Orland-Barak, L., 2006.Constructing knowledge in professionalconversations: The role of beliefs onknowledge and knowing. Learning andInstruction, 16, p.592-608.

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IntroductionThe wide-ranging work of, for example, BarryStierer, and the Preparing for AcademicPractice CETL explores the questions ofdisciplinary practice in research and, indeedthe extent to which disciplinary academicscan be expected to ‘write education’ aspart of their academic practice. Stierer citesMcCarthy’s (1994) view that ‘[For manylecturers].. education as a set of specialisedknowledge and language practices is a‘strange land’ – indeed as strange a land asan unfamiliar subject area can be for typicaluniversity students. ‘We were particularlyinterested in exploring the question atinstitutional level, based on the work we havebeen doing with individual academics from arange of departments across the university.This derives also from our own researchinterests: exploring teacher identity theextent to which forms of disciplinarypractices are considered part of the identity.

It is relevant at this point to describe our ownroles with the institution. The University ofKent is relatively unusual in not havi7ng a

Department of Education, Centre forEducational Research or other educationmainstream provision. Consequently,educational research activity has tended tobe generated in academic departments (aswell as from the central Unit in which we arebased), without any obvious forum wherethis can readily be disseminated or shared.Colleagues within the institution may onlylearn of activity elsewhere in the institutionthrough attending external events, such asconferences. We are both experiencededucation academics who had previouslytaught and researched in such departmentsat other universities, appointed to our currentposts in large measure because of thatexperience and track record, now based in acentral academic development unit. Ourwork encompasses initial teacher educationfor new academics and part-time teachingstaff (registered on the Kent PostgraduateCertificate in Higher Education) and workingwith more experienced staff in academicdepartments. The work with moreexperienced staff is manifested in severalways: organically through common subject

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10. Anyone can do it? Supporting educational research in otherdisciplines

Fran Beaton and Janice Malcolm, University of Kent. [email protected]@kent.ac.uk

Summary This paper addresses the question of how disciplinary discourses shape conceptualisations ofeducational research, and the implications of this for the promotion of educational (includingpedagogic) research among academics in other disciplines.

The promotion of the ‘teaching-research nexus’ is currently a popular focus, both withineducation policy and in the practice of teacher education and development for academic staff.The authors, education academics in an academic development unit, are expected as part oftheir role to support colleagues in subject departments in developing educational enquiry withintheir disciplines. Publication is encouraged as a form of dissemination, as a means of raising theinstitutional profile, and to support the career development of the academics concerned.

Keywords Disciplinary pedagogical research / research methodologies / role of educationaldevelopment

interests; supporting individual members ofstaff or course teams addressing broadercurriculum issues; working with staff onprojects, preparing applications forUniversity prizes or National TeachingFellowships; establishing networks of staffwith specific supporting or leadership rolesand responsibilities such as mentoring,acting as Departmental Senior Tutor orDirectors of Learning and Teaching. For thepurposes of this paper, however, we focuson working with academics as they prepareto develop educational inquiry in theirdiscipline. This work includes identifyingwhere such research is already taking placeand developing a framework fordisseminating and debating this work morewidely. The disciplinary conceptions onwhich such work is based form an importantpart of the discourse which develops in thecourse of interdisciplinary exchanges; in thenext section we will consider the ways inwhich these conceptions evolve and theimplications of these for practice.

We believe that disciplinary conceptions gobeyond questions of language or, indeed,academic ‘literacies’.1 Disciplinary researchtraining itself provides the fundamentalconcepts for designing, conducting andevaluating research. The new postgraduatestudent learns how research questions canbe formulated, and indeed which kinds ofquestions are considered legitimate to ask.The nature of admissible evidence, how thatevidence may be gathered and whether thereare permissible variations according tocircumstances also form part of thedisciplinary induction into the community ofpractice. The tyro researcher is alsoexposed to a number of other questions anddisciplinary practices. These include, forexample, the legitimacy of drawinginferences from evidence; the extent towhich it is possible or appropriate todemonstrate causality; the role of data insupporting or refuting claims; and, crucially,how research should be presented. In short,we learn about disciplinary ontology and

epistemology and the practices appropriateto the methodology of our disciplinary field.

The examples we have chosen to focus onare drawn from a number of sources. Chiefamong these is work by university academics(either work-in-progress or alreadypublished), including research projectsundertaken as part of the PGCHEprogramme. We have also drawn onexamples from HE Academy SubjectCentres. A third source relates to ourinstitution-wide role: we advise and supportstaff preparing National Teaching Fellowshipapplications, a process perceived by ourcolleagues as engaging with a differentdiscourse. All three show different views ofeducational research: both its aim and how itis conducted. They further make assumptionsabout the anticipated reader, and the genresof communication appropriate to what are –or are imagined to be - that reader’sexpectations. It is for that reason, amongothers, that the NTFS is an interesting field tostudy. NTFS awards are made across allsubject areas, and all applications will be readby one subject specialist and one non-specialist.2 It could reasonably be inferredthat applications which can gain and hold theattention of both are more likely to besuccessful than those which do not; could itnot be supposed that applications fromSocial Scientists, more familiar with thediscourse, would predominate? While we donot claim to have investigated the disciplinarybackground of all NTFS holders – and indeedthe national listings do not always declare it –it is instructive to look at the awards madebetween 2006 and 2008: Sciences (includingMedical Education) and Humanitiespredominate. This could suggest that acapacity to switch discourse is less criticalthan we suppose, or deliberately discounted,or a relatively minor consideration in thecriteria; if so, then it raises questions aboutthe function of the non-specialist reader. Withthis in mind, let us consider the examplesdrawn from the work of academics indepartments.

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Anyone can do it? Supporting educational research in other disciplines

1 Lea, M.R. & Stierer, B., 2000

2 http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/professional/ntfs/individual

Examples:BiosciencesA mid-career lecturer in Biosciences wishedto investigate the impact of an educationalintervention. He took the following steps:

1. Identified the educational rationale forthe intervention;

2. Established a control group and anexperiment group;

3. Established a procedure forimplementing the intervention;

4. Developed a framework for reporting theresults;

5. Intervened;6. Drew interim conclusions from the

results of the intervention;7. Reiterated with a further group;8. Drew further interim conclusions from

both sets of results;9. Considered the effectiveness of the data

based on a) concrete data and b) theaffective impact based on his ownobservation and as reported bystudents; and,

10. Wrote up preliminary findings based onall the above, concluding that theintervention appeared to have beeneffective and could be usefullyreplicated across the student cohort asa whole.

Indeed, it would not be possible to assure itsimpact until it had been much more widelyimplemented.

The basis for the intervention had been theprocedure applied in his own discipline; as anon-specialist, one might query the ethicalimplications of putting students in the controlgroup at an educational disadvantage. Hadthe intervention not been successful, thiscould of course have applied to the othergroup. The process by which each groupwas selected was not explained. The factthat the intervention needed to be tested by

replication on a large scale is also rooted indisciplinary practice. A colleague in the samedepartment was horrified to read an accountof a Social Sciences research project which ‘only had one experiment in it’3. How couldthis be considered publishable research?Contrast this with a lecturer in Economics,who described his discipline as ‘occupyingmessy territory’4, positioned betweenSciences and Social Sciences. What wouldour scientist make of a discipline whosethreshold concepts include the notion of ‘allother things being equal’ - where a closedexperiment can lead to several possibledeductions rather than proof?

Computer ScienceThe Computer Science Subject Centre notesthat ‘few results in educational research are,in any sense, ‘precise.’’ 5 It is not clearwhether this is a cause for concern orcelebration, but can certainly be interpretedas an attempt to signpost a different set ofassumptions. The site, Getting Started inComputer Science Education Researchprovides an overview of Social Sciencesresearch methods for the new educationalresearcher. Sally Fincher (ComputingLaboratory, University of Kent) and JoshTenenberg (Institute of Technology,University of Washington, Tacoma), in theirwork on disciplinary commons, describe a‘bootstrapping’6 approach to developing aComputer Science Education Researchcommunity of practice. The term ‘bootstrap’refers to a model of Computer Science withwhich participants are familiar(’….processes whereby a complex systememerges by starting simply and, bit by bit,developing more complex capabilities on topof the simpler ones’) as well as its meaningin more general use as in ‘pulling oneself upby the bootstraps’. Fincher and Tenenbergidentify three distinct and overlapping levelsas a means of establishing CSEd as ‘adistinct and rigorous research paradigm and

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3 Private conversation, 20074 Private conversation, 20075 http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/pedagogical/cs_research/6 Fincher, S. & Tenenberg, J., 20067 ibid

simultaneously hastening individuals’ fullparticipation’. These are

‘Bootstrapping the novice CEd researcher byproviding entry points into the theory andmethods of carrying out CSEd research;

Bootstrapping a community of practice ofCSEd researcher practitioners with similarskills, practices and language for engaging inshared research endeavours;

Bootstrapping the wider CSEd researchcommunity by establishing a critical mass ofresearchers with rigorous practices andstandards for carrying out and evaluatingCSEd research’7

Thus the creation of this community ofpractice applies a familiar conceptual modelto a new context, initiating the developmentof a new discourse. Fincher and Tenenbergsubsequently describe the practical stepstaken to ensure that participants at all threelevels are both gaining from, and giving to,the community as a whole. The process itselfprovides a structure within which the noviceresearcher is an active and creative memberof the evolving community and therebymoves from legitimate peripheralparticipation to full membership.

MathematicsThis paper was written by a group of earlycareer academics and a more experiencedmember of staff. They sought to investigatethe correlation between student attendance,performance (including that in assessedwork) and their development as‘mathematical thinkers’. The first part of thepaper tabulated statistical data based on thedepartmental practice of record-keeping,monitoring student participation in variousteaching contexts (typically problemsclasses, workshops and lectures) andstudent performance in formative andsummative assessment tasks. However the

paper, while inferring that the correlationbetween attendance and performance wasvery close, then considered the students’own perceptions and expectations, whichwere at marked variance with that of theacademic staff. Students expectedmathematics at university level to providerules, certainties and provable propositions;staff valued attributes such as uncertainty,hypothesising and analytical sophistication.Finally, the paper specifically questioned theeffectiveness of the traditional transmissionapproach to mathematics teaching and theextent to which this ran counter to the veryattributes they prized and wished students todevelop. To that end, a programme teamplans a review of teaching approaches as ameans of developing those critical andcreative skills, and considering how thisimplementation can be embedded andevaluated.

Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.The final example is drawn from theLanguages, Linguistics and Area StudiesSubject Centre. This comprises a wide rangeof disciplinary fields. Some areas are closerto Social Sciences: Applied Linguistics,Second Language Acquisition researchers,socio-cultural practitioners, languageeducation specialists. Others, such as AreaStudies, are more closely aligned withHumanities. This can lead both to conflictingviews on research methodology and, equallycrucially, to practical disadvantages. IfHumanities-oriented subjects are less wellversed in ’speaking the language’, they riskbeing left behind in the pursuit of funding topursue, or make visible, research questionsin their disciplinary field. The Subject Centre,while warning of the risks in making toomuch of the assumption that Social Sciencesand Humanities approaches to research areat variance, suggest that the HE Academy’sown emphasis on evidence-basedapproaches ‘further implies that socialsciences are presumed to provide the

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approach by which pedagogic research canbe done’. The commentary continues:

‘ …[this idea] may be fatally flawed.Standpoints and philosophies such asfeminism, Marxism, post-structuralismresonate with practitioners in socialsciences and the humanities, albeit in verydifferent ways. It could be argued thatthere has been a failure to engagecritically with pedagogic research and thatthe prevailing paradigm is not a socialscience one but an inherentlyconservative one which does notchallenge the existing ‘safe system’.8

In terms of educational research this SubjectCentre makes explicit the questions we havebeen addressing here, locating them in thewider Higher Education research context. • Is pedagogic research a concern for

discipline-based practitioners or doeducation specialists undertakepedagogic research best?

• Is the low status given to pedagogicresearch a consequence of low academicquality or a symptom of its marginalisationof pedagogy as a disciplinary concern?

This is not simply a matter of whateducational research is, or who shouldundertake it, but its impact and currency:how is educational research perceived inrelation to discipline-specific research?Lueddeke suggests that there could be‘room for both disciplinary research anddisciplinary pedagogical research withcomplementary or distinctive career paths’,citing the University of Pennsylvania as anexample of rewarding and recognisingdistinguished performance through Chairs inPractice for ‘outstanding teachers who arealso distinguished professionals in theirfields’.9 Malcolm 10 notes that ’Thisdiscipline - oriented work remains largelywithin a teaching and learning frame…rarely

elevated to the status of ‘real ‘research. Thisis not surprising, given that it may beundertaken in ways which fail to meet therequirements of research within the disciplineitself, and at the same time would not passmuster as ‘real’ educational research.’ TheKent PGCHE, for example, is not alone inencouraging academic staff to explore andinterrogate the distinctive features of theirown practice, part of the long-runningargument about the balance of generic anddiscipline-specific practice in teachereducation: what does all this imply?

ConclusionThe key question remains: can anyone do it?Attempting to superimpose Social Sciencesor education methods onto the knowledgestructures and practices of other disciplinesis, we believe, likely to satisfy therequirements of neither. It is likely to beunsatisfactory for the individual and – incareer terms – probably counter-productive.It also devalues educational research as afield of practice. Educational inquiry needs tobecome an integral part of disciplinaryidentity, developed and made explicit bypractitioners themselves. The ways in whichmeaning and understanding are constructedand, a central tenet in relation to learning andteaching, could, be usefully reviewed in thecontext of researcher development. This maymeans the development of a new discourseover time but this is not the same as thewholesale importing of educationaldiscourse. In many instances, disciplinarytraining (for example for PhD study) does notinclude explicit consideration ofepistemology, or why certain methodologiesare considered legitimate. Scientificmethod, for example, may be taught with noreal consideration of how, or why, it differsfrom any other discipline. This would enablenovices to learn about and explore thedistinctive features of their own practice, ajourney facilitated by more experienced

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8 http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/paper.aspx?resourceid=24349 Malcolm, J., 200810 Fincher, S. & Ten

members of that community and supportedby institutional and educational structures.This is clearly a longer term project whichneeds extensive disciplinary inquiry and areview of the postgraduate curriculum. It ispart of our role, as education specialistsworking with individuals across thedisciplinary range, to foster and promote apositive spirit of inquiry in this work.

ReferencesFincher, S. & Tenenberg, J., 2006. UsingTheory to Inform Capacity Building:Bootstrapping Communities of Practice inComputer Science Education Research.Journal of Engineering Education, 95(4).

Jenks, A., Healey, M. & Zetter, R., 2007.Linking Research and Teaching in Disciplinesand departments. York: HE Academy.

Luedekke, G.R., 2003. ProfessionalisingTeaching Practice in Higher Education: astudy of disciplinary variation and ‘teaching-scholarship’. Studies in Higher Education,28(2), p.213-228.

Malcolm, J., 2008. Research and Curriculumin Professional Development for AcademicPractice. Paper presented at HigherEducation Close-up 4, University of CapeTown, 26 – 28 June 2008.

Stierer, B. & Lea, M.R., 2000. Student writingin higher education: New contexts.Buckingham: Open University Press/Societyfor Research into Higher Education.

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IntroductionIn order to move forward these reforms theGovernment had a vision that standards ofteaching and learning should improve withinthe Lifelong Learning Sector, and that insupport of this Centre’s of Excellence inTeacher Training (CETT’s) would bedeveloped (DfES, 2004 p.4). However, thisleads to the question as to whether CETT’s,or indeed excellence in Teacher Training, canmove forward teaching and learning as awhole. The following research question wastherefore developed:

‘What are the interrelations betweenexcellence in Teacher Training, Centresfor Excellence in Teacher Training and thequality of Teaching and Learning in aFurther Education College?’

Aims and MethodologyAt this early stage the aims of the researchare: to identify the many facets which areinvolved in quantifying excellence in teacher

training; examine this from the point of viewof trainees, individuals delivering theprogrammes, providers and stakeholders;examine the effect of CETT’s on ITT andoverall teaching and learning; and, toimprove the abilities and skills of theEducation Studies team within the college,and those in the wider FE context. It isenvisaged that these aims will be refinedthroughout the period of the research.

Having considered both qualitative andquantitative methods it was decided to use aqualitative and in particular ethnographicapproach to the study. Ethnography as aresearch method has grown from its 19th

century origins where non-western cultureswere studied in their own environment(Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007, p.1). It isnow generally held to be the study of a socialgroup, in an everyday context, by listening tothe voices of individuals within the group(Cresswell, 2007, p.242, Hammersley andAtkinson, 2007 p.3). Ethnography is now

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11. Excellence In Teacher Training: Impact on Teaching andLearning

Wendy H. Jones, Bournemouth and Poole College. [email protected]

Summary ‘People are always wanting teachers to change. Rarely has that been more true than in recentyears. Few people want to do much about the economy, but everyone – politicians, the mediaand the public alike – wants to do something about education.’ (Hargreaves 1994, p.5)

Although, describing secondary school teaching in the 1990’s this could be considered equallypertinent in teaching in the post compulsory sector today, which is currently in a state oftransition. Sweeping reforms are currently taking place as outlined in the following extract fromthe Government White Paper Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances.

‘We will only achieve this [world class skills status] if our FE system is fit for purpose in meetingthe two strategic challenges of transforming 14-19 education and up-skilling the adult workforce.This will mean major reform for colleges and training providers, so that FE gains the esteem itdeserves as the engine room of a successful economy, with the power to transform lives.’(Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2006 p.5)

Keywords Teacher training / further education / excellence / standards

becoming more widely acceptable across allsocial sciences and is used within a range ofsettings, when studying one’s own culture(Johnson et al. 2006 p.111-112). O’Donaghue (2007 p.5) adds that ethnographycan provide a rich source of data about thebeliefs and activities of those who are withina particular setting such as education. Itallows the researcher to examine a situationthrough the eyes of those participating, andthe research to evolve over time (Cohen et al.2006). Having taken this into consideration itwould appear that an ethnographic approachwould support the nature of the researchwhich will need to be set in its culturalcontext in order to be relevant. Rudestamand Newton (2007 p.42) described a newdimension of ethnography: critical enquiry,which should include a political dimension.This research is set within the currentpolitical situation in the United Kingdom,which is driving forward changes in InitialTeacher Training in the Lifelong LearningSector. Therefore it could be argued thatethnography is particularly suited to supporta study of the current situation withineducation.

Data CollectionHaving considered a number of authors suchas Hammersley and Atkinson (2007 p183),Cresswell (2007, p.43), Phelps et al. (2007,p.180), David and Sutton (2004, p.44),Robson (2002, p.174, 385) and Hentschel(1999, p.68) it was decided to use atriangulation approach to data collection, inparticular semi-structured interviews andparticipant observation. Triangulation allowscross checking of data and thereforeprevents bias.

Both semi-structured and structuredinterviews were considered, however, it wasfelt that semi-structured would allow pre-prepared questions to be used as a basicframework, whilst allowing for flexibility. Thisgives the interviewer the ability to moderatethe interview if it is felt appropriate at thetime (Robson, 2002 p.270). There is an

argument that in ethnography, directedquestioning should not be used in order toeradicate researcher bias. However,Hammersley and Atkinson (2007 p.101)argue against this stating that as the verypresence of the researcher can cause bias itwould be impossible to eradicate thisentirely.

Participant observation will also be usedallowing the researcher to immerse herself inthe culture of Teacher Training and tounderstand the “behaviour, motivation andattitudes” of those under study” (Dawson,2007 p.34). However, it is intended to useovert participation (Dawson, 2007, p.34), asthe researcher will be known to most of theparticipants. She believes this to be anequally valid method of research, whereasothers, such as Cresswell (2007, p.120)argue that for the research to be valid theresearcher should be completely unknown tomost of the participants. In this instance,however, it would be difficult as theresearcher is known in the wider academiccommunity of Teacher Training. Johnson etal. (2006, p.113) ask whether it is theparticipant or the observer who is moredominant. The researcher in this case hasresponsibility for observation of the teachingprocess as well as having a teaching role.Roles may also change according tocircumstances (Johnson et al. 2006 p.115).There may be difficulty with the powerinvested in the researcher’s work role whichcould change the nature of the research. Thisis supported by Cresswell (2007, p.122) whostates that multiple strategies of validationshould be used to offset this.

Background and Historical ContextThe impact of these changes can only befully understood if examined in their historicalcontext. Traditionally, FE teaching has notbeen held in high regard with The McNairReport (1944), identifying teaching as beingdull with outdated teaching methods. McNairrecommended that teachers in FE shouldhave a recognised teaching qualification to

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Excellence In Teacher Training: Impact on Teaching and Learning

support their vocational qualifications, thisbeing repeated in the Willis Jackson Report(1957) and the Russell Report (1966). Despitethis it would appear that FE teachingcontinued to be poor with nothing tangiblebeing done to improve the situation (Bristow,1970). Teaching in Further Education wasdescribed as in a state of crisis, marginalisedand having low status (Robson, 1998 p.585).This is supported by Tight (2002 p.139) whosuggests that institutions and educatorshave not been delivering to standardsacceptable to the Government or fundingauthorities. This was despite the 1993 movefrom LEA control to a market driven model(Smithers and Robinson 2000 p.3), whichshould have ensured that teaching within theFE sector was excellent to justify its place inthe market. In spite of this repeated advicethat major changes were required in thetraining of vocational lecturers, Lucas (2004,p.64, 77) continued to highlight the generalfeeling that vocational expertise wassufficient to teach in Further Education (FE).He went on to outline the link betweenuninspired teaching and poor retention andachievement. It could be extrapolated fromthis that if Initial Teacher Training is poorthen this will have an impact on the teachingin the classrooms.

Tight (2002 p.29) identified three key levelswhere stakeholders feel that the situationshould improve. He describes these as themacro-, meso- and micro-levels as follows:

• At the macro-level the Governmentwishes to increase the literacy andnumeracy Level 2 qualifications;

• At the meso-level organisations wish toimprove retention and achievement; and,

• At the micro-level individuals want to begood teachers.

One could argue that all of these could beachieved if there was a high standard ofInitial Teacher Training, where TraineeTeachers go through the process ofbecoming excellent teachers.

Comparison with SchoolsThe current situation in FE can be betterunderstood if it is set in the context ofcomparison with schools. FE has long beenaccepted as being the “Cinderella Service”when compared to schools (Randle & Brady,1997 p.121) with Titmus (1999, p346)describing FE’s struggle to gain equivalencewith schools. During the early 1990’s therewere many changes within Teacher Trainingin Schools, with teachers being encouragedto become agents of change and takeresponsibility for professional learning andcontinuous improvement (Hargreaves, 1994,p.12). This was linked to increasedprofessionalism through changes in InitialTeacher Training (ITT), well qualifiedapplicants to ITT, and greater accountabilityfor the quality of ITT (Furlong et al. 2000, p3).There is an argument that post-modernsociety requires the workforce todemonstrate “new qualities and skills”(Hargreaves, 1994, p.48). This would appearto determine that teachers, and indeedteacher trainers, would require a newportfolio of skills in order to meet the needsof the changing workforce.

The changes in Teacher Training in theLifelong Learning Sector today would seemto mirror this with the emphasis on first classtraining and the expectation that FE teacherswill be required to undertake TeacherTraining and take responsibility for their ownContinual Professional Development (CPD).The vision is for a highly professional andcompetent workforce who will meet theneeds of the students and employers of thefuture.

Key DocumentsA study of the Key Documents involved inthese changes is necessary in order tounderstand the implications. In 1973 theHaycocks Report (1973) recommended thatthere be increased Initial Teacher Training forteachers working in FE, but, as previouslyhighlighted, this was never implemented.Education and Training for the 21st Century

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(1991) linked funding to growth. This meansthat recruitment numbers are key to ensuringfunding. In order to recruit students, collegesand other providers must demonstrate highclass educational provision, with a highretention and achievement rate. However,Randle and Brady (1997, p.129), are of theview that this emphasis on recruitment leadsto a reduction in the quality of provision. Thisfine balancing act of numbers versus qualitycan surely only be guaranteed if teachingand learning is sound and meets the needsof all learners. The Kennedy Report (1997)introduced the concept of wideningparticipation and highlighted that FEproviders were key players in ensuring thatthis was moved forward. Teaching andLearning were becoming increasingly moresignificant and Success for All (2002, p.29)emphasised this as a key priority, placing‘Teaching and Learning at the heart of whatwe do.’ The Government’s strategy for howthis could be achieved was set out inEquipping our Teachers for the Future (2004,p.4). This outlined new standards for teachertraining in the lifelong learning sector, whichwas closely linked to changes to InitialTeacher Training and the award of QualifiedTeacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status.Teacher Trainers are also expected todemonstrate a wide range of skills in the fieldof education. This document also introducedthe concept of CETT’s to move forwardExcellence in Teacher Training in LifelongLearning and Skills.

Teacher Training ReformsThese recommendations ended a period ofwhat is described as ‘benign neglect’ in FEand increased its stature; however this inturn has brought increased regulation(Lucas, 2004, p.35). This is supported byBailey and Robson (2004, p.333) particularlywith regard to the training of FE teachers.

As a response to the aboverecommendations new qualifications werebought in to replace the existing ones. Thesewere based on the new standards forTeacher Training, and were to be known as

the Certificate in Teaching in the LifelongLearning Sector (CTLLS) and the Diploma inTeaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector.Both of these qualifications were toincorporate a new baseline qualification,known as Preparing to Teach in the LifelongLearning Sector (PTLLS), designed to allownew teachers to gain the immediate teachingskills they would require whilst workingtowards their qualification.

The initial implementation started inSeptember 2007 and all providers of TeacherTraining within FE are now delivering thesequalifications. It is important to note thatalthough many HE providers are using thenew standards, and incorporating the PTLLSelement, they are still continuing to call themCert. Ed. rather than DTLLS. It appears tomany that these changes were implementedtoo quickly and before providers were in aposition to assimilate the changes. Again,this would appear to mirror the situationwhen changing Initial Teacher Training inSchools where there was also a feeling thatthe changes were moved through too quicklywith the speed of change seen as unsettling(Elliott, 1996, p.59).

A significant part of these reforms is therequirement to demonstrate ContinualProfessional Development in order to obtainQTLS status. On the surface this wouldappear to be a positive step, and one whichcould pave the way towards excellence.However, Hargreaves (1994, p.74) warns thatself development if not well managed canbecome:

• Self indulgent;• Politically naive in that it focuses on the

self rather than the broader context; and,• Grandiose.

This would suggest that CPD must be rootedin realism and the cultural context rather thanfocusing on the individual themselves. Theneeds of the student and organisationalrequirements are an important element of theCPD process.

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ExcellenceIn order to move forward the debate onexcellence it is first necessary to establishwhat is meant by excellence. The UniversalDictionary (1987, p.535) describes it as being‘the state, quality or condition of excelling,superiority, pre-eminence’, and it is towardsthis that teacher trainers should be striving. Itis hoped that by modelling excellence thenthis will be instilled in their trainees. Currentlyexcellence in Teacher Training is measuredusing Ofsted criteria, however, it is intendedthrough this research to examine overallTeaching and Learning in the traineeteachers organisation’s as the criteria forsuccess. This is considered critical by Kealy(1995, p.47) who states that quality inteacher training can only be measured interms of the teacher’s ability to supportlearning in their own students. Elliott (1996,p.69) however, found that although qualitywas being considered it appeared to be lowon the agenda. Retention and achievementrates will also be considered as there isevidence that the quality of teaching andlearning is linked to achievement (Robson,1998 p.590). Wiesen (2000, p.44) outlinesthe qualities which she considersdemonstrate excellence in teaching, andmany of these, such as innovative teachingmethods, a broad knowledge of the syllabus,the transmission of material in an interestingway and modelling theory in the classroomamongst others, could be considereddirectly translatable into Teacher Training.Technological competence has also beenhighlighted as being important withinteaching in today’s society (Hargreaves,1994 p.84, Wiesen, 2000 p.51) which wouldindicate that this would need to demonstratean equal level of importance within teachertraining.

There is a belief that excellence comes aboutthrough possession or cultivation of certainqualities of personality, such as beingrespectful of others, principled and fairamongst others (Carr, 2007 p.380). TeacherTraining therefore should support the

trainees ability to develop these traits.Dimbley and Cooke (2000, p.73), believe thatteaching effectiveness includes using arange of resources and skills to facilitatelearning. They go on to say ‘the mainpurpose of all education and training being toenable students to learn’ with the student’sexperience of the teaching/learning interfacebeing key to this. Trainee Teachers shouldtherefore be given the opportunity to learnthis within their training. However, Robson(2000, p.61) suggests that this is not alwaysthe case, and that many trainees aredisappointed with the training andexperience they receive.

Training has been described as allowing usto ‘respond accurately and appropriately toan expected and typical situation’ (Tight,2002 p.120). If this is taken as the standard inTeacher Training, then, Trainee Teachersshould be able to teach well in their normalenvironment. If excellence in TeacherTraining is demonstrated then TraineeTeachers should be able to improveperformance in a range of circumstances.Hargreaves (1994, p.60-61) puts forward theview that teachers need to be flexible in theirrole and ways of teaching in order to meetthe needs of students in today’s world.Although he is talking about education inschools this ‘moving mosaic approach’could be considered equally valid in postcompulsory education.

It has been argued that the impact of marketforces has had a detrimental effect onprovision by limiting choice (Elliott, 1996,p.58). Perhaps, education providers shouldconsider what students may want or get fromeducation, rather than looking at skills fromthe market/Government viewpoint. In fact ifPeter’s (1966) viewpoint is taken intoconsideration then teachers have a moralobligation to make sure that this happens.Dimbleby and Cooke (2000), describe theBournemouth and Poole College mission asbeing ‘to enable individuals andorganisations to realize their potential

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through higher quality and innovative lifelonglearning, accessible to the wholecommunity’, which would appear to supportthe preceding discussion. Closely allied tothis, however, would surely be high qualityand innovative teaching and learning in allcurriculum areas, but especially in TeacherTraining.

Robson et al. (2004, p.187) stress theimportance of taking into account theprofessionalism inherent in the FE teachersfirst career. They come with existing expertknowledge, which can enhance their skillwithin the classroom. The blending of subjectspecialist knowledge and professionalismwith teaching knowledge andprofessionalism could support excellencewithin the classroom. It should, therefore, beone of the roles of an efficient teacher trainerto facilitate the development of this. An interesting point is raised by Simmonsand Thompson (2007, p.173) who suggestthat many employers are reluctant to releasestaff for Teacher Training with the effect thatmany Trainee Teachers are completingcourses in their own time. This begs thequestion of whether trainees are able to becompletely responsive to training given theiremployment workloads. This in itself couldhave an impact on excellence in teaching aswell as teacher training. This serves todemonstrate the many aspects which needto be taken into consideration whenconsidering excellence in Teacher Training.

CultureCulture has been described as being the wayin which a community shared its collectiveknowledge and solutions with any new, andcomparatively inexperienced members(Hargreaves, 1994 p.165). Within theteaching arena this would be the way inwhich Teacher Trainers pass on knowledgeand skills to those entering the teachingprofession. However, there is much more toteacher training than this. The main role ofthose within teacher training is not only tosupport trainees to develop the skills theywill require to be part of the teaching culture;

but also to allow them to push that cultureforward. Elliot (1996, p.19) suggests that oneof the difficulties in FE is that the culture isnot clear. This could be due to its relativelyyoung history and the many changes it hasexperienced, a perspective supported byLucas (2002, p.38).

One of the difficulties with relying on cultureto support learning is that times of culturaluncertainty can lead to lack of innovationand a return to ‘safe’ working practices(Hargreaves 1994, p.17), which in turn couldlead to a reduction in standards. It may bethat the very changes which seek to moveforward teaching and learning in FE, andchange its culture, may in fact hinder the verychanges they seek to make. This will need tobe closely monitored and measured ifexcellence is to be achieved.

Teaching and LearningIn a survey completed by Campaign forLearning (1998), 67% of adults stated thatlearning was important and they valued avariety of methods to help them learn.Learning was associated with enjoyment,fun, discovery, varied methods, finding out,sharing ideas with others and professionalgrowth. Training on the other hand was seenas hard work and learning new skills. Thiswould seem to suggest that the emphasisshould be on learning rather than training.Success for All (2002, p.29) put teaching andlearning firmly on the agenda and suggestedthat all teachers should be able to use a widerange of teaching and learning strategies tosupport their students. It is envisaged thatthere will be a raising of standards, sharing ofgood practice and a culture of identifyingand rewarding good practice.

In order to measure the standards ofteaching and learning, college retention andachievement data will be used as a processbased measure as described by Winch andGingell (1999, p.197). Organisational lessonobservation data will also be used as ameasure of excellence and/or improvement,as will participant observation.

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ConclusionThis review has looked at the historic andcurrent literature surrounding the area ofteacher training and of teaching itself. It hasdrawn comparisons with the changes inteaching in schools and looked at thehistorical context which has led to thecurrent changes. It is apparent that there area number of studies which have looked atexcellence in teaching, but little has beenfound in the area of excellence in teachertraining. This would appear to suggest thatthis topic is one which is not only current, butwould support research at PhD level. Theliterature review has revealed a number ofstrands which would appear to be worthy ofstudy including: the effect of culture andcultural instability on excellence; the views ofstudent teachers regarding what theyconsider to be excellence in teacher training;their experience on the course, and, themodelling of excellence.

ReferencesBailey, B. & Robson, J., 2004. ChangingTeachers: A Critical Review of RecentPolicies Affecting the Professional Trainingand Qualifications of Teachers in SchoolsColleges and Universities in England, Journalof Vocational Education and Training, 4(2),p.325-341.

Board of Education, 1944. Teachers andYouth Leaders. Report of the Committeeappointed by the President of the Board ofEducation to consider the supply,recruitment and training of teachers andyouth leaders. London: HMSO, [Online]Available at: www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/mcnair_part_two.htm [Accessed:February 17, 2008].

Bristow, A., 1970. Inside the Colleges ofFurther Education, London: DES/HMSO.

Campaign for Learning 1998. Attitudes toLearning ’98. MORI State of the NationSurvey: Summary Report, London:Campaign for Learning.

Carr, D., 2007. Character in Teaching, BritishJournal of Education Studies, 55(4), p.369-389.

Cresswell, J.W., 2007. Qualitative Enquiryand Research Design: Choosing Among FiveApproaches, (2nd Edition), London: Sage.

DES, 1991. Education and training for the21st century, London: HMSO.

DfES, 2002. Success for All: ReformingFurther Education and Training, London:DfES.

DfES, 2004. Equipping our Teachers for theFuture: Reforming Initial Teacher Training forthe Learning and Skills Sector. London:DfES.

DfES 2006. Further Education: Raising Skills,Improving Life Chances. Norwich: TheStationary Office.

Dimbleby, R. & Cooke, C., 2000. Curriculumand Learning. In A. Smithers & P. Robinson(Eds), Further Education Reformed, London:Falmer Press.

Elliott, G., 1996. Crisis and Change inVocational Education and Training. London:Jessica Kingsley.

Furlong, J., Barton, L., Miles, S., Whiting, C.& Whitty, G., 2000. Teacher Education inTransition: Reforming Professionalism.Buckingham: Open University Press.

Hargreaves, A., 1994. Changing Teachers,Changing Times: Teachers Work and Culturein the Postmodern Age. London: Cassell.

Haycocks Report, 1973. On the Training ofFurther Education Teachers. in Neary M.(2002), Curriculum Studies in PostCompulsory and Adult Education.Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Kealy, R., 1995. Perceptions of Quality inTeacher Education and Training, EuropeanJournal of Teacher Education, 18, p.47-57.

Kennedy, H., 1997. Learning Works –Widening Participation in Further Education.Coventry: FEFC.

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Lucas, N., 2004. Teaching in FurtherEducation: New Perspectives for a ChangingContext. London: Institute of Education.

MoE, 1957. The supply and training ofTeachers in Technical Colleges. The WillisJackson Report, London: HMSO. In N.Lucas, 2004. Teaching in Further Education:New Perspectives for a Changing Context.London: Institute of Education.

Peters, R.S., 1966. Ethics and Education,London: Alan and Unwin. In R. Barrow & R.Woods, 1982. An Introduction to Philosophyin Education. (2nd Ed), London: Routledge.

Phelps, R., Fisher, K. & Ellis, A., 2007.Organizing and Managing Your Research: APractical Guide for Postgraduates. London:Sage.

Polit, D.F., Beck, C.T. & Hungler, B.P., 2001.Essentials of Nursing Research: MethodsAppraisal and Utilization. (5th Ed.),Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams andWilkins.

Randle, K. & Brady, N., 1997. Managerialismand Professionalism in the CinderellaService. Journal of Vocational Education andTraining, 49(1), p.121-139.

Readers Digest, 1987. Universal Dictionary.London: Readers Digest.

Robson, J., Bailey, B. & Larkin, S., 2004.Adding Value: Investigating the Discourse ofProfessionalism Adopted by VocationalTeachers in Further Education. Journal ofEducation and Work, 17(2), p.183-195.

Robson, J., 1998. A Profession in Crisis:status, culture and identity in the furthereducation college. Journal of VocationalEducation and Training, 50(4), p.585-607.

Robson. J., 2000. Coping with Transition:Some Experiences of Student Teachers in aFurther Education College. Australian andNew Zealand Journal of VocationalEducation, 8(1), p.53-72.

Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R., 2007.Surviving Your Dissertation Thousand Oaks:Sage.

Russell Report, 1966. The Supply andTraining of Teachers for Further Education.London: HMSO. In N. Lucas, 2004. Teachingin Further Education: New Perspectives for aChanging Context. London: Institute ofEducation.

Simmons, R. & Thompson, R. 2007. AimingHigher: How will Universities Respond toChanges in Initial Teacher Training for thePost-Compulsory Sector in England? Journalof Further and Higher Education, 31(2),p.171-182.

Smithers, A. & Robinson, P., 2000. FurtherEducation Reformed, London: Falmer Press.

Tight, M., 2002. Key Concepts in AdultEducation and Training, (2nd Ed), London:Routledge Falmer.

Titmus, C., 1999. Concepts and Practices ofEducation and Adult Education: Obstacles toLifelong Education and Lifelong Learning?International Journal of Lifelong Education,18(5), p.343 – 354.

Wiesen, B., 2000. The Threat to Excellence inTeaching: Teacher Attitudes to thePromotion Programme in IsraelMediterranean Journal of Education Studies,5(1), p.35-53.

Winch, C., & Gingell, J., 1999. Key Conceptsin the Philosophy of Education, London:Routledge.

Wisker, G., 2001. The PostgraduateResearch Handbook, Basingstoke: PalgraveMacMillan.

Wright, K.B. & Schmelzer, M., 1997.Qualitative Research: Exploring NewFrontiers. Gastroenterology Nursing, 20(3),p.74-78.

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IntroductionThe seeds of FDs had been sown earlier withThe Choosing to Change Report in 1994,which had recommended that there was aneed for intermediate higher educationqualifications which combined vocationallyorientated courses with the potential toprogress to higher education (HE) andemployment (DfES, 2004). Sir Ron Dearing’sreport in 1997 (SCAA,1996) also underlinedthe importance of raising the profile ofvocational qualifications and this view wassupported in 1999 by the Second Report ofthe National Skills Task Force, DeliveringSkills for All (NSTF, 1999). Dearing (1996)keenly advocated the continued expansion ofHE as a means of competing in a globalizedeconomy and viewed a large part of thegrowth at sub-degree level coming throughqualifications such as the Higher NationalCertificate (HNC) and the Higher NationalDiploma (HND). Kennedy in Learning Works(1997) highlighted the role of furthereducation (FE) in increasing ‘wideningparticipation’ (one of the new Government’spriorities) through the delivery of thisprovision, especially at the intermediate skillslevel (Tight, 2004).

The Government saw sub-degree provisionas appealing to a wider spectrum of people(including those who might not havepreviously considered higher education);addressing the ‘skills gap’; involving furthereducation (FE); and, complementing otherdevelopments such as National VocationalQualifications (NVQs) and Modern

Apprenticeships (MAs). It therefore heraldedthe introduction of a new two-yearqualification upon which future expansionwould be concentrated. The purpose of thisnew qualification was to provide employerswith staff who had the necessary academicqualifications, with knowledge of andunderstanding of matching theory to practiceencourage widening participation and lifelonglearning (Blunkett, 2000)

Theoretical perspectiveThis research has drawn on the work of threemain theorists as a basis for the theoreticalframework, these are Bourdieu, (1977a,1977b, 1977c, 1983, 1984, 1990) Lave andWenger, (1991, 2002), and Dewey (1933,1938, 1963). The thesis is framed within thecontext of these theories. It links to thethemes in the literature review with referenceto work-based learning (WBL), wideningparticipation, lifelong learning andencompasses the notion of ‘communities ofpractice’ in the early years sector, which forma basis for examining, analysing anddiscussing this research.

Literature Review:Work-based learningThe assessment structure of FDs is entirelybased on work-based assessments which tiein theory with practice. The rationale is thatthis will enable employers to recruitemployees who have a thorough knowledgeof both the theoretical and practical aspectsof their work. Research indicates that industryprefers to employ people who can combine

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12. What are Foundation degrees?

Urmi Joshi, Hackney Community College. [email protected]

Summary Foundation degrees (FDs) were launched in 2000 by David Blunkett with the rationale of‘widening participation for social inclusion’, ‘increasing participation for economiccompetitiveness’ and ‘bridging the skills gap at the intermediate level’ (Blunkett, 2000: 11).

Keywords Foundation degrees / work-based learning / student perceptions / employer perceptions

the technical expertise needed to do the jobwith experience of other skills needed in theworkplace (Harvey & Knight, 1996, Hales &Phillips, 2003). This integration is not a newidea as it had been the norm of craft relatedapprenticeships for a long time (Gray, 2001).In a poll conducted by The Forum of SmallBusinesses (Lightfoot, 2005), it was reportedthat university graduates do not always makethe best employees as they may lack thesocial and organizational skills needed in theworkplace.

John Dewey’s theory (1916, 1938) thateducation propels and encouragesindividuals to achieve their potential throughlearning by doing is underpinned in the FDcurriculum which has WBL as one of itsdefining features. Dewey maintained that thismanner of learning would enable individualsto develop skills and habits that would aidproblem solving skills, develop motivationand encourage critical thinking. This methodof learning, he believed, would activelypromote flexibility and therefore a moretolerant society. In Democracy and Education(1916) he introduces an important re-conceptualization of vocational education.Dewey maintains that new ideas emanatefrom being involved in work in a ‘doing’context. Vocational education enablesindividuals to see what works in practice andindividuals learn because material is notpresented in an abstract form. Individuals areactively participating in the learning and inthis manner both intellectual and rationalprocesses come into play. This in turn helpsto develop reasoning powers and powers ofjudgement which enable individuals to worktogether in a democratic manner makingjudgements and decisions which favour theinterests and the groups with whom they areworking.

This aspect is important for early yearspractitioners as they work with children, andthe manner and attitudes which they bring intheir dealings with children profoundly affectthe lives of the children. Research by GrahamMatheson (2006) at Canterbury Christ Church

University with learners on EYFD, teachingand learning support and child and youthstudies reported that learners valued theopportunity to study whilst working, and theirperception was that the course helped inpersonal development and in creating futureopportunities. Dewey’s theory (1916) that theinterplay of the two principles of continuityand interaction results in experience, ispertinent in the context of FDs as thecurriculum content and the delivery of FDsconcentrates on building upon theexperiences of the learners and facilitatingfurther acquisition of knowledge. This will inturn benefit them as practitioners and thechildren they look after.

Dewey (ibid) was of the opinion that theemphasis on the subjective quality oflearners’ experiences and the understandingand acknowledgement from the teacher inthe delivery of the lessons would result in aliberating educational experience and enablethem to be positive role models in society.Dewey’s philosophy focussed on what hastraditionally been termed epistemology or thetheory of knowledge. Dewey rejected boththese terms favouring instead the theory ofinquiry or experimental logic.

Biggs (2003) outlined the benefits of WBL, asthis method makes a distinction betweendeclarative and functional knowledge. Theformer refers to knowledge which thestudents can write about but the latter refersto knowledge which students have toperform in their workplace to demonstratetheir understanding. In addition, WBL canalso encourage critical reflection (Schon,1983).

Research by Green (2006: 30) on theperceived benefits of WBL to employersfound that the employers perceptions of theroles of employers varied considerably.Employers commented that they hadreceived insufficient information regarding‘any kind of guidance from course staff, theprocess of supervising, process of givingfeedback’ and in some cases, the first time

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What are Foundation degrees?

the employer had received anycommunication from the college was ‘whenthe college was asked to seek a volunteerorganisation to respond to the researcher!’(ibid). The success of WBL is largelydepended on the support provided by theemployers, the understanding of thequalification and regular information andcommunication with the institutions (Powell &Stickland, 2007; Dear & Lonsdale, 2006; YorkConsulting, 2004).

The benchmark for FDs stipulates thatemployer involvement is crucial to thesuccess of FDs and that employers should beinvolved in all aspects including aspects ofcourse delivery, assessment of learningoutcomes and providing a supportivelearning environment (QAA, 2005). Asindicated in the previous paragraphemployers are not fully engaged with WBLand research done by Hillier et al. (2004)suggested that there was a polarization ofperceptions from the standpoint of employersand employees. The perceptions ofemployers indicated that they would beinvolved with WBL only if time andcircumstances permitted and althoughacknowledging the benefits of FDS, theperceptions of employees was that there wasan unevenness of practice in organizations.

More recently, Wenger (2000: 25) has tried toapply his model to organisationalsubstructures such as departments andteams as well as to ‘broader learningsystems, such as an industry or consortium’.There have been criticisms of this model inrelation to contemporary organisations withcomplex structures, and the failure to takeinto account factors such as power play andrelationships and their influence onindividuals’ learning and opportunities (Contu& Wilmott, 2000; Fox, 2000; Rainbird, 2000b;Driver, 2002). Imbalance in powerrelationships leads to tensions and factorssuch as the amount and kind of learningtaking place (Reynolds 2000; Cohen, 1999).

This is pertinent to childcare which hashistorically seen a neglect of emphasis onlearning, learning has been hindered becausea large proportion of the workforce work parttime and ‘power’ has been concentratedamongst those formulating policy. WhilstLave and Wenger (1991) acknowledge theexistence of power plays within organisationsand also the power of a community todisempower, they have not clarified howthese processes might work. The debate overpower relations and associated tensions hasto some extent been resolved by authorssuch as Gherardi (1999), who suggests‘seeing’ this model from a process instead ofa structural viewpoint and Fox (2000), whosuggests that ‘communities of practice’should be defined mainly in terms ofpractices which are part of wider dynamicsocial networks. Fox (ibid) attempts to answerthe power question in Lave and Wenger’smodel by linking it to other theoreticalexplorations such as those of Foucault (ibid),Callon (1986) and Latour’s (1987) Actor-Network theory.

On the other hand, whilst acknowledging thepositive benefits of workplace learning,Rainbird (2000a:1) warns that it can also beproblematic because the primary objective ofthe workplace is not learning; ‘but theproduction of goods and services’. It can beargued that the above statement does notapply to early years as it is through learningthat the workforce and therefore childrenbenefit. Frequent upgrading of knowledgeand skills leads to better services for children.It remains to be seen whether employers willfeel that the above mentioned benefitsoutweigh all the other financial and staffingproblems they face.

Research MethodologyA mixed method approach was adopted withdata being collected from focus groupinterviews and questionnaires. This methodworks well, particularly in education, as it isable to demonstrate a process which can beflexible and adaptable to changing

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circumstances. FE has witnessed dramaticchanges in recent years and as the researchfocussed on learners studying a HEprogramme in FE, enabled the author toexamine the complex range of factors andperceptions which affect all stakeholdersinvolved with FDs. In this approach, as eachcontext falls into its own unique andparticular niche it can investigate and reporton findings that reflect the changing anddynamic interaction of events, humanrelationships and the manner in which thecombination of these factors affect theanalysis of the gathered data.

Perceptions of Work-Based Learning:according to studentsAlthough there were problems with theassessment methods, the benefits of work-based assessments were also highlighted.One student commented:

‘Sometimes I would see what the childrenwere doing and be able to say Piaget says thisabout child development and feel that what Ihave been learning at college is useful. Oncemy colleague commented on a child who justliked carrying things around in a bag and Iwas able to explain Schemas to her – she wasvery impressed and then I explained otherthings like Enveloping and now every time wesee a child doing things we talk about theSchemas’.

The student commented on how just the factthat she was able to say a ‘few names’ notonly made her feel good but also raised hercredibility rating in the workplace. Theworkplace could actually see the benefits ofthe course in the way she spoke aboutchildren. The student went on to say thateven she was surprised at the way herlanguage changed as she used ‘big words’now.

‘I could talk about what was happening inmy workplace and people would listen, thelecturer would take my point and ask me toexplain further sometimes I could seeothers nodding in agreement – I began tofeel confident’.

This feeling that their opinion mattered gavelearners great confidence. The learners werebeginning to get recognition from ‘outside’, inthis case the lecturers, work colleagues andother students. Another student commentedthat:

‘There are many positive aspects to workbased assessment. One of them being,that you have the ability to put what youlearn on the course into practice. What Ilearn on the course helps me to challengemy practice and I am constantly learningand implementing new ideas.’

Some students felt that they gained not onlytheoretical knowledge but also came awaywith ideas of how they could do certainactivities. The class discussion enabled themto gain an over view of how other settingsapproached similar issues and what were thestrategies they employed. It was possible totalk and discuss the strategies employed byother settings and question them. Again, allthe discussion could take place in anenvironment which was safe and wherepeople were not hesitant to talk about thepositive and negative elements of theirmanner of approaching things. One studentcommented:

‘I was really interested in listening to howthis setting had integrated a multilingualchild. I was full of ideas and as I had a verysupportive manager I told her about it andwe tried it out. We had good success!’

Twelve out of twenty-six students from allthree colleges talked about how they wereable to reflect on their own practice andmatch it in light of current theory. Now, theyfelt themselves to be on a course, whichallowed them to fit theory with practice. Thisadditionally, gave them an opportunity tothink about policies and even agendas(sometimes hidden), which determined therunning of their organizations.

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‘I thought, the manager just wants to savemoney she won’t advertise for anotherpost! Only when we all get really fed up withworking so hard – then she will’.

The students were able to compare whatwould be best for the children they workedwith and contrast it with what occurred inreality. Students were able to see the chasmsthat separated theory from practice and wereable to articulate the reasons for this gulf.

‘I would have liked to see how this childdeveloped if the physio came in three timesa week instead of once a term! I wanted totalk to an expert about what other things Icould do with her like how could Iencourage her to hold a pencil – but mymanager was not interested and would notwrite or call up the Special Needs Team’.

Students were able to reflect on the culture oftheir workplace and what elements werelacking which might enhance learning. Oneexample was the lack of knowledge aboutchildren with special needs. Do they learndifferently? Are they providing the rightstimulation to encourage development andgrowth? And of course, where does fundingcome into all this? Does the workplace havefunds to provide for specialist play equipment,for example. During teaching, learners andlecturers delivering the module (how childrenlearn) were able to have animated andknowledgeable discussions as to howchildren learn and what their experience ofthis has been. Learners were able to discussother elements that affect learning, like cultureor their preferred style of learning.

Employer PerceptionsFive employers were interviewed. One of themwas from the Local Authority, two from thevoluntary sector and one was located withinthe Further Education sector.

Work-Based Learning/AssessmentsWBL is an integral part of the FD and theresearch question focuses on the perceptionsof WBL. WBL was highlighted by employers

as needing a more defined structure in termsof design and delivery to ensure the successof FDs. None of the employers interviewed inthis study had been involved in designing orgiving their opinions on the assessmentstructure. In fact, none of them was aware thatFDs were designed around the needs of theemployers until they read the publicitymaterial. Two employers voiced theirconcerns around work-based assessments.One of the employers found that she did nothave the range of children on whomobservations could be conducted and this ledto undue anxiety for her staff who then had toarrange to go and observe children in otherareas of provision. She could not allow themember of staff to have ‘time off’, as thiswould be seen as being unfair to other staff:

‘My staff had to arrange observations withanother provider in her own time – sheended up taking two days of her annualleave and even after that she found that thisother nursery were not willing to give her allthe information saying that it wasconfidential’.

Students (covered under assessments) alsomade similar points. Another employercommented that she had no idea of the rangeof assessments, which needed to be work-based:

‘Had I been made aware before the start ofthe course I would have been able to thinkabout the assessments and plan somethingout. In this case, I was taken by surpriseabout every assessment’

Two employers commented that there wasnot sufficient communication between thecolleges, either about the course or thespecifics of work-based assessments:

‘Before the course started representativesfrom the college should have comepersonally and given a breakdown onthings like how the students were going tobe assessed. If I had an idea of what theassessment was I might have been able tohelp her more’

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Another employer commented that regularcontact with the college, in the form ofmeetings would have helped in understandingthe course, the benefits to the staff and theorganisation and in trying to help the students.

Conclusion and RecommendationsThe structure of assessments could benefitfrom changes as almost all modules dependon practical observations done in theworkplace. Employers need to be informedand given detailed information about theassessment methods and colleges, learnersand employers should agree on the details ofthe observations as soon as the learners haveenrolled on the programme. It is suggestedthat some of the modules should incorporatealternate assessment methods in order to giveall learners an equal chance. Employers’suggestions regarding the content andassessment methods should be incorporatedinto the programme. A thorough trainingneeds analysis of employers needs to beconducted which could be used to fine tunecurriculum delivery.

Employers need to be consulted in thesummer term (e.g. invited to staff meetings)and suggestions for improving course contentincorporated for the delivery of the courses inthe new academic year. The organisation ofconferences at regional or national level willalso allow employers an opportunity to sharetheir experiences. Although these conferencesare being held now, the overall impressionappears to be that small and mediumemployers still find accommodating studentson the FD difficult. It is precisely theseemployers who need to be targeted.

ReferencesBlunkett, D., 2000. Modernising Highereducation – Facing the Global Challenge.Speech on Higher education, University ofGreenwich, 15/02/2000.

Bourdieu, P., 1977a. Reproduction inEducation, Society and Culture. London:Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Bourdieu, P., 1977b. Outline of a Theory ofPractice. (R. Nice, translation) Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Bourdieu, P., 1977c. Cultural Reproductionand Social Reproduction. In J. Karabel, & A.Halsey, (eds. 1977) Power and Ideology inEducation. New York: Oxford UniversityPress.

Bourdieu, P., 1983. Forms of capital. In J. C.Richards (ed.) Handbook of Theory andResearch for the Sociology of Education.New York: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu, P., 1984. Distinction: a socialcritique of the judgement of taste. London:Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Bourdieu, P., 1990. In Other Words: EssaysTowards a Reflexive Sociology. (M. Adamson,translation) Stanford, CA: Stanford UniversityPress.

Callon, M., 1986. Some elements of aSociology of Translation: Domestication of theScallops and the Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay.In J. Law, (ed.) Power, Action and Belief: Anew Sociology of Knowledge. London:Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Choosing to Change, 1994. In DfES (2004)Foundation Degree Task Report to Ministers.Nottingham: Stationery Office.

Cohen, P., 1999. Apprenticeships a la Mode?Some reflections on Learning as Culturallabour. In P. Ainley, & H. Rainbird (eds.)Apprenticeship: Towards a New Paradigm ofLearning. London: Kogan Page.

Contu, A. & Wilmott, H., 2000. Comment onWenger and Yanow. Knowing in Practice: A‘Delicate Flower’ the Organizational LearningField. Organization, 7(2), p.269-276.

Dear, S. & Lonsdale, J., 2006. Understandingthe employer’s perspective. Foundation,degree Forward, 10, p.20-22, Autumn edition,2006.

Dearing, R., 1996. Review of Qualifications for16 -17 year olds. London: SCAA.

Dewey, J., 1933. How We Think. Arestatement of the relation of reflectivethinking to the educative process. (Revisededn.). Boston: D. C. Heath.

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Dewey, J., 1938. Experience and Education.New York: Macmillan.

Dewey, J., 1938/1963. Experience andEducation. New York: Collier Books.

Driver, M., 2002. Learning and Leadership inOrganisations: Towards ComplementaryCommunities of Practice. ManagementLearning. 33(1), p.99-126.

Fox, S., 2000. Communities of Practice,Foucault and Actor-Network Theory. Journalof Management Studies, 37(6), p.853-867.

Gherardi, S., 1999. Learning as Problem-Driven or Learning in the Face of Mystery?Organization Studies, 20(1), p.101-124.

Gray, D., 2001. A Briefing on Work-BasedLearning. LTSN Generic Centre AssessmentSeries No 11.

Green, C., 2006. The perceived benefit ofwork-based learning – capturing the views ofstudents, staff and employers. Foundationdegree forward, 9, p.27-31.Conferenceedition, July 2006.

Hales, J. & Phillips, M., 2003 EmployersPerspectives Survey 2002 Technical Report,National Centre for Social Research.

Harvey, L. & Knight, P., 1996. TransformingHigher education. Buckingham: SRHE OpenUniversity Press.

Hillier, Y., Sterling, I. & Butt, N., 2004.Evaluating a Foundation Degree: FoundationDegree in Public Service Management. In L.Brennan & D. Gosling (eds.) (2004) MakingFoundation Degrees Work. London: SEEC.p.195-214.

Latour, B., 1987. Science In Action: How toFollow Scientists and Engineers ThroughSociety. Milton Keynes: Open UniversityPress.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E., 1991. SituatedLearning. Legitimate peripheral participation.Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E., 2002. Legitimateperipheral participation in communities ofpractice. In R. Harrison, F. Reeve, A. Hanson

& J. Clarke (eds.) Supporting Lifelonglearning, Vol.1: perspectives on learning.London: Routledge Falmer.

Lightfoot, L., 2005. Graduates Not Up to theJob, say firms. The Telegraph 23/8/05.

Matheson, L., 2006. Using an educationFoundation degree as a route into teaching.Foundation Degree forward,9, p.31-32, July.

NSTF, 1999. Second Report of the NationalSkills Taskforce: Delivering Skills for All.London: DfEE.

Powell, K. & Stickland, H., (2007) EngagingEmployers: The Role of the Foundationdegree ‘Ambassador’. Foundation degreeforward, 12, p.47-49, July.

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[Accessed 19/12/05].

Rainbird, H., 2000a. Skilling the unskilled:access to work-based larning and the lifelonglearning agenda. Journal of Education andWork, 13(2), p.193-197.

Rainbird, H., 2000b. Training in theWorkplace: critical perspectives on learning atwork. Basingstoke: MacMillan.

Reynolds M., 2000. Bright Lights and PastoralIdyll: Ideas of Community UnderlyingManagement Education Methodologies.Management Learning, 29(1), p.67 -81.

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IntroductionThis paper draws on some initial researchcarried out with ten childcare tutors in apartner further education college (FEC)considering the barriers to a moresuccessful partnership. The original aim wasto examine how far there is a sharedlanguage between HE and FE and how wecould develop a consensus of meaning toprogress staff development in carrying outresearch. However the results of the studysuggest that there are deeper issuesinvolved and that to move forward we needto address questions of confidence andidentity. If we want our FE partners toengage in scholarship of teaching andlearning, research-informed practice,evidenced-based practice or any one of thevarious derivations should we not be clearabout what we mean? The barriers are notjust to research but to the meanings weascribe to the terms and the relationship thishas to personal and professional identity.The paper considers the view that there isindeed an understanding gap and reflects onthe need to develop a consensus of meaningto progress staff development, achieve apositive working relationship bringingtogether different tribes and cultures andbegin to define an identity.

BackgroundThe partner college began delivering HE levelprogrammes in the late 1990s and is lookingto expand that provision in line with recentgovernment initiatives. The childcaredepartment has offered HNC/D EarlyChildhood Studies since 2000 andFoundation Degrees from 2003 and is lookingto seek approval to expand this portfolio. Asis the case in many FECs, the staff who teachHE provision also carry a high workload of FEprogrammes and are expected to meet therequirements of both sectors. In regards toprofessional standards there are expectationson both sectors in regard to continuingprofessional development in order tomaintain, develop and update skills: ‘Ensurethat knowledge of own specialist area iscurrent and appropriate to the teachingcontext’ (LLUK, 2006 p8) and ‘…the ability toincorporate research, scholarship and/orprofessional practice’ (HEA 2004, p3).

Many of the staff were aware of the new UKStandards Framework and would like toachieve recognition by the HE Academy. Oneof the stumbling blocks relates to theinterpretation of the standards and inparticular the links to research andscholarship of teaching and learning.

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Research? When I don’t know who I am or what I am!A question of Identity for HE in FE tutors

13. Research? When I don’t know who I am or what I am!A question of Identity for HE in FE tutors

Jenny Eland, Birmingham City University. [email protected]

Summary The drive for greater participation in higher education has placed an increased emphasis on theprovision of higher education (HE) within the further education (FE) sector, bringing with itconcerns for staff in both institutions. For many years the FE sector has been regarded as thepoor relation and has struggled to prove its credentials in quality, parity and expertise. Manytutors working in FE have to navigate differing cultures and inspection regimes (Ofsted, ALI, QAAplus local LSC and internal QA processes), deal with incompatible paperwork (with no adminsupport) and strive to attain a plethora of “professional” standards. Being good at jumpingthrough hoops and bending backwards are consummate skills in FE but has the time come toacknowledge the differences and to begin to play on the same pitch?

Keywords Identity / HE in FE / language / research / scholarship

It is my belief from having worked in FE thereare good examples of research informedpractice but this is not formalized, and inmany cases not seen as ‘research’. My initialideas were therefore to look at how we couldencourage and support the tutors in thecollege to undertake and utilize research intheir professional development and how wecould best ensure that they will be able toachieve recognition at Fellow level.

In thinking about this I looked back to a 2005QAA review of one of the programmesoffered at the partner college. At that time,although I had moved to work in the HEinstitution, I was still carrying out the role ofCourse Director of the programme and sowas intimately involved in the review. Duringthe process I observed that the FE tutorswere unsure about answering the questionsand would wait for the University staff tospeak. In post meeting debriefings many ofthe tutors noted that they did not fullyunderstand the questions but once they hadbeen “translated” felt they could answer.Two years on and the work on implementingthe new UK standards appears to be comingup against the same issues suggesting thatlanguage could be creating an obstacle.

So, before considering how to encourageresearch practices, it was important toinquire into the level of understanding thatthe FE staff had of the words currently in useacross the University. What I initially wantedto find out was the extent to which thecollege lecturers had an understanding of theterminology used in the link university and tolook at the range and type of “research”undertaken. Having ascertained this, the nextmove would be to consider ways of reachingcommon definitions and to bring togetherresearch and scholarship.

Research MethodThe research was carried out with ten tutorsin the childcare department of the partnercollege all of whom were female. Theparticipants taught on a range of HE courses

(Foundation Degrees, HNDs, teacher trainingand NVQ level 4). Five of the group had takenpart in the QAA review the remaining fivewere new to HE programmes but had beenteaching in FE for a number of years. Thepercentage of time they taught on HEprogrammes ranged from 10% (1 sessionper week) to 100%. As this was to be a pilotaimed at discovering initial understandingand perceptions the proposed method was asurvey asking for the participants ownunderstanding of the terminology. It wasimportant that this was in their own words sono additional prompts would be given. Fiveof the participants filled in the surveys at thesame time and in the same room, althoughno interaction took place during theanswering of the questions. They had theirown debriefing afterwards which I observed.The remaining five completed the task viaemail. One member of the group wanted todiscuss the issues while they were still freshin her mind and so I carried out anunstructured interview based around thesurvey.

The survey was in two parts. Firstly, theparticipants were asked to provide their owndefinition of four terms that regularly appearin HE texts and discussions: scholarship ofteaching and learning (SOTL), researchinformed practice, pedagogic research andcurrency. All the terms had been used in theQAA review and all appear either in theguidance for the new standards or in the staffhandbook for franchise partners. The finalfour questions related to how they keptthemselves up to date in regard to both theirsubject and learning and teaching. Theywere asked:

• How do you keep “up-to-date” in yoursubject area?

• Do you keep up to date with learning andteaching strategies?

• If yes, how do you do this? • Do you feel both areas are of equal

importance? • What does research mean to you?

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What I hoped to be able to do was then linkthe two sections and look at how we couldfind a way to encourage further researchmaking use of what was already in practice.

Findings: SOTLScholarship of teaching and learning, atheme running through the standardsframework and a central precept ofeducational development, proved to be onethat caused puzzlement. Two of therespondents simply stated that did not knowit nor had they come across the term,although one of them followed this up withsaying possibly writing for journals. Tworelated the meaning to qualifications forteaching and one other said teachingstudies.

Three made a link to theory andpractice:

…being good at teaching and learning byacademic writing (for journals etc) Self study into how theory impacts uponactual teaching practice Learning about teaching and learning at ahigher level…

One respondent seemed to bring thequalification and theory/practice link togetherby referring to those functioning at a level ofacademic excellence in theirdiscipline…those individuals who haveachieved certain standards in academiccircles.

One respondent felt it to be the “art” [herquotation marks] of conveying ideas andunderstanding - a “level” of understandingpedagogy.

To be fair to the respondents this is also aterm causing much discussion withinacademic development circles. It seems tofall into the category of tacit knowledge -everyone understands what it means butcannot provide a single definition. Within the

literature there are many definitions (Elton,1992, 2003, 2005; Huber, 2002; Kreber,2002; HEFCE, 2006; Healy, 2005) but if werequire staff to attain a standard then a cleardefinition will be needed to allow this tohappen.

Pedagogic researchIn defining pedagogic research 30% werenot sure as to any meaning for this. One ofthe respondents knew the dictionarydefinition of pedagogy and put this into herreply research into the science of teaching;20% said research into teaching andlearning; a further 20% mentionedresearching teaching with the aim ofimproving skills; 10% felt it was personalresearch into good practice; and, 10% that itwas concerned with research into particularacademic standards. Taken overall only 30%of the respondents had a clear view of themeaning of pedagogic research. Althoughthe others provided a definition it is difficultto fully establish the degree to which this isunderstood.

CurrencyCurrency produced a range of replies thatcould be said to reflect more clearly theunderstanding given to the term within an FEenvironment. Only one of the respondentssaid that they were unsure as to what thismeant although the replies of four of theothers suggest that there is no consensus:

• Value added • Finance• Things that are here and now • Current climate-targets, courses that have

been identified as a priority for training.

Three agreed that this related to their ownup-to-date practice and ensuring that theykeep abreast of changes. Anotherrespondent added to this by saying in anacademic sense your qualifications would bea passport to a career currency to purchasethe next qualification.

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One respondent related this to the course - isthe form/mode of (delivery/research/etc)appropriate to group In terms of an FE definition of currency, 50%of respondents are very close to each otherin their interpretation. Within FE, currencyapplies more to ensuring that qualificationsand professional (vocational) practice arerelevant and up-to-date. Indeed in the newregulations this relates to continuousprofessional development through a“passport to teaching” and the new QualifiedTeacher Learning Skills (QTLS) award with afurther proviso that they renew their licenceto practice on a regular basis. Within thisparticular HE setting currency has a numberof meanings depending on which faculty oradministrative division is asking the question.If a course team were asked “how iscurrency maintained?” (as indeed we wereby the QAA) representatives from Registrywould discuss credit ratings and levels,vocationally based lecturers would ensurethat their industry relatedexperience/qualifications were current;module designers would show how thecourse reflects the changes in requirementsat national and local level; and, “academic”lecturers would show how they use theirresearch, scholarship, consultancy andprofessional activity to inform their teaching.Again there seems to be some form of tacitunderstanding in each area and once theboundaries are established HE staff are ableto communicate with a shared language.

Research informed practiceResearch informed practice produced moreof a consensus of opinion with 70% ofrespondents providing similar replies, notingthe links between theory (research of others)and personal practice, although all felt thatthis was from the literature base rather thancarrying out research themselves. One of therespondents said your own research which isplaced in practice however, this could beambiguous and without further discussion itis unsure as to exactly what “your ownresearch” means. One of the scripts was

difficult to read but it did mention researchinto maintaining practice. One respondentsaid it is a new word for vocational training.Across the literature this also seems to be anon-contentious issue in terms of definition,a web search of various universitiesstrategies produces interpretations that areremarkably similar, indeed many also havedual terms noting “researchinformed/evidenced based”.

Many of the responses suggest thatlanguage, which is taken for granted in HEcircles, does not communicate well with staffin FE. As Wareing says

‘If expressions which are commonplace inthe discourse of educational developmentare not consistently understood …, thencommunication simply does not takeplace. There is no exchange ofinformation, or at least, of the informationwhich it was the writer’s intention tocommunicate.’ (2004 p9)

Indeed the word discourse itself (althoughnot one of the terms requiring a definition)had proven problematic to one of therespondents who had recently been onsecondment to another HE institution.

…what really got me was the use ofdiscourse, they didn’t have a chat theywould have discourse. It took me a fewweeks to realise that what they meant wasthat they wanted to talk about something.We would have discourse about teachingobservations why can’t we just have achat or a conversation? It’s such a load ofcrap; it’s almost as if they want to keeppeople out. (Respondent in unstructuredinterview)

This would also indicate that there is sometacit knowledge and understanding at playwithin the community. For Becher, tacitknowledge is that ‘particular kind ofunderstanding which is so taken for grantedby those who possess it that it is never

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explicitly taught, but has instead to beacquired by sustained involvement in therelevant cultural milieu.’ (1987 p262)

The staff in an FE setting are not totallyimmersed in the academic culture of HE andmay be left to gain their awareness ofprocesses through some form of osmosis.Although the latter four questions related totheir personal attitudes to development theywere asked to say what “research” means tothem. All the respondents talked aboutresearch in terms of an opportunity to delvedeeper into areas of interest through textsand other media, there was no reference toany form of applied or practice-basedresearch. In keeping up-to-date with theirsubject area the main methods were throughconferences, books, and journals. 90% ofthe group thought that keeping up-to-datewith learning and teaching strategies wasimportant and used similar methods to dothis. One participant felt that this area wasnot as important and thought that keepingup-to-date in the subject to be of more value.

DisciplineAn interesting facet of language thatemerged related to “discipline”. This was nota term that I had expected would betroublesome, and indeed it was onlymentioned at the start of the survey to give apicture of the make up of the group.

When asked do you consider yourself tohave a discipline? If so, what is it?40% of the respondents said no; 40% saidyes identifying education/social science.While 20% interpreted the word in terms ofpersonal conditions:

• To practice my work load in childcarestudies

• Time management and organisation

Here again we have a word that is ‘the lifeblood of higher education’ (Becher 1994 p153) not being fully understood andaccepted by another section of theprofession. If 60% of the respondents do not

have a discipline does this affect theirunderstanding of various aspects ofterminology? If as Baume asserts ‘manyacademics derive most of their professionalidentity from their discipline’ (1995 cited inJenkins 1996 p 50) and if that disciplineprovides the language, culture, values, codesof conduct and the means to make sense ofthe world (Becher, 1981; Becher & Trowler2001) how do you construct your reality? Towhat tribe or community do you belong? Therespondents relate to at least threecommunities; the HE community of thefranchise university, the FE community inwhich they are based and their“professional” community and it is perhapsthis latter group that may stand in for theirdiscipline.

Conclusion and future researchThe responses to the questions suggestthat the FE staff carry out the actionsand activities required by HE but withintheir own boundaries and territories. Forexample all the respondents ensuredthat in some ways they kept up-to-date(maintained currency) in their subject(research informed practice) and themajority felt that knowing about learningand teaching strategies was important(pedagogic research) what they didn’thave was the language.

As one of the respondents noted “inconsidering these questions I feel thatsome of the terms (scholarship,research, currency) are not as clearlydefined as many think. In fact theyprobably mean different things todifferent people.”

A comment that is borne out in theliterature. It can be seen that therespondents’ understanding of theterminology is largely different to that ofthe university and its staff and this couldbe a barrier to future workingrelationships. But is any of this due totheir perceptions that they do not have adiscipline or is their identity that of a

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lecturer in an FEC? If their disciplinedoes not provide the words how do theybegin interpret and ascribe meaning andtake action? These areas need furtherinvestigation and a consensus needs tobe reached for parity to exist. TheProfessional Standards are soon to beimplemented and we need to ensure thatwe provide the tools to enable our FEpartners to become registeredpractitioners. The respondents are allprepared to engage in scholarship ofteaching and learning and can do so assoon as they know what it is, how it isdone and possibly who they are. But before we blindly go on encouraging FEstaff to engage with research we need toaddress the issue of identity and look towhich tribe they feel affinity. For FE staff tounderstand and work comfortably in anotherculture we need to see the barriers and makestrides to overcome them. As one of the FEstaff said after the QAA review:

I wouldn’t mind beingCinderella if I actually got to goto the ball; the trouble is Icouldn’t understand theinvitation.

ReferencesBecher, T., 1981. Towards a Definition ofDisciplinary Cultures. Studies in HigherEducation, 6(2), p.109-122.

Becher, T., 1987. Disciplinary Discourse.Studies in Higher Education, 12(3), p.261-274.

Becher, T., 1994.The Significance ofDisciplinary Differences. Studies in HigherEducation, 19(2), p.151-161.

Becher, T. & Trowler, P.R., 2001. AcademicTribes and Territories. (2nd edition)Buckingham: SRHE and the Open UniversityPress.

Elton, L., 1992. Research, Teaching andScholarship in and Expanding HigherEducation System. Higher EducationQuarterly, 46, p.252-268.

Elton, L., 2003. Some Thoughts onScholarship. Educational Developments, 4(4),p.7-9.

Elton, L., 2005. Scholarship and the ResearchTeaching Nexus. in R. Barnett, ed. Reshapingthe University: New Relationships BetweenResearch, Scholarship and Teaching.Maidenhead: McGraw–Hill Education, OpenUniversity Press. Ch. 8.

Healy, M., 2005. Linking Research andTeaching: Exploring Disciplinary Spaces andthe Role of Inquiry-based Learning. in R.Barnett, ed. Reshaping the University: NewRelationships Between Research, Scholarshipand Teaching. Maidenhead: McGraw-HillEducation, Open University Press. Ch. 5.

HEFCE, 2006. Higher Education in FurtherEducation Colleges Consultation on HEFCEPolicy. Bristol: HEFCE.

HEA, 2004. The UK Professional

Standards Framework for teaching andsupporting learning in higher education. York:HEA.

Huber, M. T., 2002. Disciplines and theDevelopment of Scholarship of Teaching andLearning in the United States of America.York: HEA.

Jenkins, A., 1996. Discipline-basedEducational Development. The InternationalJournal for Educational Development, 1(1),p.50-62.

Kreber, C., 2002. Controversy andConsensus on the Scholarship of Teaching.Studies in Higher Education, 27(2), p.151-167.

LLUK, 2006. New Overarching Professionalstandards for Teachers, Tutors and Trainers inthe Lifelong Learning Sector. London:Lifelong Learning United Kingdom.

Wareing, S., 2004. It Ain’t What You Say it’sthe Way That You Say it: an Analysis of theLanguage of Educational Development.Educational Developments, 5(2), p.9-11.

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IntroductionThe scale of national provision of HEdelivered in FE is substantial. Some 96,000students were studying HE at 270 FECs in2006-2007. HEFCE has set out policydocuments on the role of FECs in thedevelopment of HE (HEFCE, 2008). Thisincludes the recognition of the distinctivecontribution of FECs and plans for thestrategic development of HE in FECs.

Despite obvious disparities in studentfunding, learning resources and the ability ofFECs to offer key teaching staff terms,conditions and financial remuneration tomatch that offered by HEIs, the quality ofprovision is reported as largely satisfactory.The QAA review teams had confidence in90% of the FEC provision, and limitedconfidence/no confidence in the remaining10%. As HE in FE is inspected under adifferent regime to HEIs there is nocomparable data on how the 10% limitedconfidence/no confidence figure compareswith HEI’s performance

The resources invested by the QAA inreviewing FECs in proportion to their size isfar in excess of any inspection regime HEIshave experienced. For example, a subjectreview in 2003 at the City of Bath College fortwo subjects (Computing and Engineering)used five reviewers for twenty man-days. It isarguably that as a consequence of this effort

by the QAA, the government has a cleareridea of the standard of HE delivered in FECsthan in HEIs.

Views on Research in FEThe QAA (2004) in its report on ‘GoodPractise for HE in FE’ stated it was goodpractise FECs to be, ‘developing aprogramme of study informed by staffscholarship and professional expertise’ forstaff teaching HNC/D level work. For degreelevel work, FECs should be ‘developing aprogramme of study informed by staffresearch.’

OFSTED (2004) noted features of collegesthat were successful and these included twothat may be interpreted as supportingresearch.

‘Teachers are knowledgeable andenthusiastic, and the best areinspirational, skilfully imparting theirpassion to students.’

‘A feature of many of the effective lessonsis the enthusiasm teacher’s show for theirsubject.’

It would be a reasonable assumption that alecturer carrying out successful research intotheir subject would be knowledgeable aboutthat subject. Anecdotal evidence indicatesthat enthusiasm for the subject is a

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The Link Between Research and Education: An FE Example

14. The Link Between Research and Education: An FE Example

John Curry, City of Bath College. [email protected]

Summary One of the major distinctions between HEI’s and HE delivered in FECs is the almost completeabsence of an academic research culture. However, a limited number of FE Colleges havestarted research programmes. This paper reviews a case study of the impact of research in asingle FEC.

Keywords Research and teaching / scholarly activity / Further Education / retention /capacity building.

necessary pre-requisite for setting aside timeto pursue research. The key questions are,‘on average would a lecturer carrying outresearch:’

‘Know more about their subject and havemore current subject knowledge, than onewho is not?’

‘Develop and maintain an enthusiasm fortheir subject?’

Conversely, OFSTED in its report WhyColleges Fail (2004) noted one of the keyreasons that colleges failed was:

‘…the professional experience andfamiliarity with current industrial andcommercial practice of long-servingteachers have become out of date, butthey rarely take up opportunities forprofessional updating..’

Of course, there are other forms ofappropriate professional updating asalternatives to pursuing research.

The Level of Research in FECsAs reported by Davies (2007) there isevidence that ‘(S)ome FECs are attemptingto cultivate research culture’ such as atBournemouth and Poole College or the Cityof Bath College. However, it is difficult toassess the level of such attempts, as thevarious QAA inspection methodologies havefocused on the student learning experienceQAA (2008) rather than the detail, relevanceand outcomes of the staff’s scholarly activity.

The Case StudyThe City of Bath College is an FEC with arange of higher education courses. Part ofthis provision includes a FdSc and a BSc(Hons) in Computing with approximately onehundred students. The relatively large-scaleof the provision in a single subject, in termsof HE delivered in FE, means that theteaching team are focussed almostexclusively on HE delivery to the students. Adisproportionate number of each annual

cohort have entered HE under the wideningparticipation agenda. The average full-timestudent enters with between 80 and 120UCAS points. Approximately ten percent ofthe students in 2006-7 were eligible for someform of learning support.

Over the last eight years, the computingprogramme at the City of Bath College hasstarted to introduce a moderated researchculture; largely action based research toinform teaching, but with a handful ofconference papers. Significant outputsinclude:

1 text book (Chris Hill, 2003, Teaching UsingInformation and Learning Technology inFurther Education).1 book chapter (written by a student)14 conference papers (mainly on subjectpedagogy, 3 subject specific)1 working paper (subject specific)1 M.Phil Completed, 2 Ph.Ds started (butstaff left before completion)

The staff have been supported to someextent by the college in doing research inreturn for the apparently positive impact ofthis activity on student recruitment, retentionand achievement; and on the inspectionsystem.

The support for research consists of amodest IT budget expenditure, given on thebasis that the equipment bought is also usedfor teaching. Staff are normally supported toattend conferences, in particular if they arepresenting a paper. The staff’s teaching timehas been reduced from 828 annual contacthours by between 60-120 hours per year. Inaddition, the staff are permitted to go ‘off-site’ for informal staff developmentopportunities, such as seeing a localemployer or investigating some innovation.

Line Managers Get ‘Brownie Points’The line managers of staff carrying out suchresearch have apparently attempted to gainorganisational status as a consequence ofthe success of their staff’s endeavours.

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Examples at the college have included,demonstration of high status IT equipment atopen evenings (virtual reality equipment,robots, geographical information systems,simulations) and showing this equipment tovarious visitors to the department In addition,the teaching staff are expected todisseminate progress with their research, forexample in the staff newsletter, posters andcollege publicity material.

Research and StaffingA potential obstacle to staff training for somebusinesses is that unnecessary investment instaff development increases the loss rate ofstaff. For example, a hypothetical collegemight not wish to develop the academic skillsof its HE staff beyond the immediaterequirements of the curriculum to reduce thechance of these high value staff joining a HEIor going into subject specific commercialpractising.

During the sample period of 2000-2007,approximately 33 IT teaching staff left thecollege (the number of staff is an estimate, assome new staff terminated their contactssoon after starting work at the college). Theaverage stay was slightly over two years. Ofthe seven staff who were termed as ‘researchactive’, the average stay was 6? years. Fourof the seven research staff leaving took upposts with HEIs.

The college currently has four staff deliveringHE computing, two of whom are research‘active’. For the purposes of this study,‘research active’ was defined as havingpresented progress of their research to theircolleagues, used it to inform their teachingand to have submitted a proposal to aconference. In this case study, it was notedthat to be ‘research active’ seemed to requirea post-graduate qualification, or be workingtowards one. Without such a formal post-graduate qualification, it would seem to be analmost insurmountable obstacle to getsufficient grounding in research skills toattempt an individual effort.

Research and Student RecruitmentIn HEI’s, the research profile of the staff isparamount, but in FE colleges individualstaff’s ability to recruit students, retain thestudents on their courses and help themsuccessfully achieve an award is the nearestequivalent.

HERO (2008) highlights key reasons whyparents should encourage their children togo to university such as: job prospects andincreased earning potential. The implicitassumption to this are the staff teaching theirchildren in vocational, near market subjectswill be using commercially relevant andcurrent subject expertise. Within the field ofIT, teaching out of date software might teachsome underpinning transferable skills, suchas logical reasoning, but it is hard to arguethis would greatly enhance theundergraduates job prospects. This wouldespecially be the case, when theundergraduate was competing with anotherundergraduate who had learnt the sametransferable skills, but using currentsoftware.

The student post induction survey providedsome evidence that seemed to reflect theimpact of research on recruitment. Studentscommented, ‘staff seem to be well qualified’,‘X (as in the lecturer) has a paragraph ofletters after their name’, ‘some interestingstuff is going on down here’ and the teachingstaff are ‘Enthusiastic geeks’. In addition,HEIs apparently rate the importance ofresearch interests on recruitment, asdemonstrated by the prominence of theresearch of its staff on almost any HEIwebsite.

Even a limited research profile canapparently boost the credibility of a coursefrom the perspective of the potential student.

Research and Student Retention/AchievementWhether a student is seen as full or part-timeby the institution, nearly all the students have

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competing demands on their time, energyand money. In relation to their course,undergraduates are ‘selectively negligent’as they cannot give equal attention to allaspects of their course, therefore theydevote more time to certain parts of thecurriculum than others.

Research can improve retention as thestudents are more engaged by a lecturerenthused by their research, they can beencouraged to contribute to ongoingresearch projects and some studentsperceive the value of the course increases ifthey see evidence of the currency of thecurriculum.

The College staff have attempted to use theirresearch to enhance the delivery of their partof the curriculum. This aimed to increase thestudent’s perceived value of the curriculumand so alter the student’s behaviour. TheQAA (2003) noted, that college staff wereusing ‘research activities of staff to ensurethat students experience challenginglearning opportunities’

Research and InspectionReviews of HE in FE by various accreditingbodies are essentially attempting to make avalue-laden judgement about the quality ofwhat the staff are teaching their students. Ifthe lecturers work is being periodically peerreviewed, they take this as a strongindication that the teaching must be currentand relevant. The college has seen manypositive comments in inspection reports onthe value of the staff’s research.

Commercial Work versus ResearchActivityFECs are well known for actively focussingon the commercial experience of their staffas part of the marketing literature. Thequestion arises whether commercialexperience is as important as research onrecruitment, retention and achievement. Inorder to maintain the credibility of staff

commercial experience, staff must update,presumably by commercial practising. Normally, the aim of commercial activity is toearn income and make a profit, this may ormay not be by applying current commercialbest practice. Therefore, commercial workdoes not automatically update the lecturer’sskills as its primary aim is to make additionalincome.

One of the advantages of the research by thecollege staff, has been using it asopportunities for students to contribute. Ifthe staff are carrying out commercial activity,they might be somewhat reluctant to involvestudents in any aspect of their relationshipwith paying clients.

Commercial work has advantages for thestudents (and the college) if it updates theskills of the staff involved, however it shouldbe noted commercial work does notnecessarily do so.

ConclusionsIt is difficult to make generalisations largelybased on one case study. However, there aresome conclusions that can be drawn fromthis example of a modest research program.Staff engaged in such activity tend to staylonger, however there are clearly otherfactors involved in staff retention. Theevidence of student surveys indicates thatthe students place greater value on staff whoare apparently current in their practise asindicated by their research activities. Thestudents rate highly opportunities toparticipate and contribute to staff researchwork. Therefore, research apparentlyincreases retention, recruitment andachievement.

The combination of the market place and theinspection system are apparently driving FEcolleges towards commencing modestresearch programmes. How an institutionwithout a research culture faces thechallenge of starting one is a different story.

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ReferencesCurry, J., 2004. The Link between researchand education: The FE perspective. HigherEducation Academy Newsletter, Summer2004.

Davies, P., 2007. HE in FE: the Struggle forExcellence. Academy Exchange, Issue 7Winter 2007, p.48-49. [Online] Available at:http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/publications/exchange [Accessed 1 June 2008].

Gallacher, J., 2004. Higher Education inFurther Education Colleges, the ScottishExperience, [Online] Available at:http://www.cihe-uk.com/publications.php[Accessed 1 June 2008].

Haven, C. & Botterill, D., 2004. HigherEducation Delivered in Further EducationColleges in England, [Online] Available at:www.hlst.itsn.ac.uk/resouces/link6/link6_2.html [Accessed 1 June 2008].

HEFCE., 2003. Supporting Higher Educationin Further Education Colleges: A guide fortutors and lecturers April 2003/15, [Online]Available at:www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2003/03_15.htm [Accessed 1 June 2008].

HEFCE (2003) Support Higher Education inFurther Education Colleges: Policy, practiseand prospects. April 2003/16, [Online]Available at:www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2003/03_16.htm [Accessed 1 June 2008].

HEFCE (2008) Higher Education in FurtherEducation Colleges. [Online] Available at:http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/heinfe/[Accessed 1 June 2008].

HERO (2008) Parents Guide Why Go toHigher Education. [Online] Available at:http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/home/index.cfm[Accessed 1 June 2008].

QAA (2008) Reports. [Online] Available at:http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/default.asp[Accessed 1 June 2008].

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