I have had several interesting responses to my e-mail. Can I urge anyone
wishing to respond to my comments to do so via the SEDA list.
I do concede that there is one point the film makes quite well, and that
is that even if Robert is a disinterested student he can be engaged if
he is taught in a more interesting way. However, I don't think
'alignment' is enough to make teaching interesting and I don't think
aligned teaching makes it inevitable that he will learn anything.
The second point I want to make is that there is an assumption in the
film that widening access to HE brings in more Roberts. We are in
danger of overgeneralising about widening access students when we think
they are necessarily like the Robert in the film. There have always been
surface learners even in more selective times, and plenty of WP students
can be engaged if taught in an interesting way.
Part of the problem in the film and much of the literature about deep
and surface learning is that there is a conflation of a deep approach to
learning and so-called 'deep learners'. No-one is always either 'deep'
or 'surface' in their approach to learning - it is not like a
personality type. When 'deep learners' are then further conflated with
'good students' we end up with a meaningless category. 'Deep learner' is
simply a 'hooray' term with very little content.
Equally poor Robert in the film is not only taking a 'surface approach'
(which may not be surprising, and not necessaily a bad thing) but he is
also late to his lectures, he smokes, he's patently bored and listens to
his i-pod in stead of working. They could have gone the whole way and
shown him shop-lifting at the local supermarket when he should have been
doing his homework. All of this is irrelevant. A student can be very
punctual and conscientious (and a non-smoker!) and still adopt a surface
approach - not least because their assessment requires them to reproduce
what the lecturer has given them and because it is strategically the
best way to survive. By associating Robert's surface aaproach with other
personal features of his life, the film reprodices the conflation of
deep=good student and surface=bad student.
Can someone offer to make a film about approaches to learning which does
not resort to stereotypes?
David Gosling
Higher Education Consultant
Visiting Research Fellow
University of Plymouth
tel/fax: 0161 456 6148
mobile: 0784 1647275
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