I know what you mean, Penny. It seems such a no brainer that if a student is
in some way not supported (they don't gain full access to the curriculum,
say) then they are less likely to achieve. However, my concern is that
support and teaching are two different things, and we have to allow for the
case in which the student says, "The support was completely satisfactory,
beyond my expectations...though it's a shame I still failed the course..."
At an extreme (and hypothetically) if disabled students started achieving
significantly better results than the general population of students
(because 'support' was so 'good'), we would have to question whether the
playing field had been levelled, or whether an advantage had somehow been
constructed. Of course, what we actually know (from HESA figures) is that
the tendency is that disabled students score about the same in terms of
awards (though significantly lower when dyslexic students are taken out of
the equation).
Where judging support by grade comes a serious cropper is when students
themselves become confused that one inevitably leads to the other (as
opposed to correlating). It can become a barrier (I've found) when students
rationalise many (or, at worst, all) ups and downs in their performance with
the support they have received. My feeling is that an ownership problem can
ensue. When it collapses into the offer of support being misinterpreted as a
copper-bottom gaurantee, and, "You said I'd get a 2:1 if I did what you
said..." then we're all in bother.
Cheers
Iain
Iain Hood
Senior Student Adviser, Learning Support
Student Support Services
APU
East Road
Cambridge
CB1 1PT
01223 363271 ex 2316
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Penny Georgiou" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: analysis of learning support
> I would have thought that the only bench mark would be the changes in
individual student performance, prior to support and post. That is, each
student is their own benchmark. It would be an interesting study and would
probably yield some unexpected insights.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. on
behalf of Alison James
> Sent: Tue 29/03/2005 09:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc:
> Subject: analysis of learning support
>
>
>
> Dear all
>
> I wonder if anyone can advise on helpful ways of analysing impact
of
> learning support provision? We have done comparisons of results
between
> students in receipt of learning support and those not - but these
seem
> fraught with difficulty due to too many variables (level of need,
level of
> take up of support, when started etc etc); we also obviously do
student
> and staff feedback surveys regularly too and pursue other case
> based/qualitative lines of enquiry but would like to try
something more
> robust.
> Any suggestions (and thanks in advance!)
>
> Alison
>
> Alison James
> Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator
> Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College
> Falkner Road
> Farnham
> Surrey
> GU9 7DS
>
> Tel: 01252 892762
>
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