I would echo many of Alison’s points. Curiously, it was Physics where I had my own “Eureka!” moment, at GCSE. Having spent three years convincing myself that I couldn’t “do” Physics, I was ready for a poor grade or even a fail. I kept reading and reading and one day it clicked. I went into the exam hall and got an A grade. I have never once used that knowledge since, mind … J …but I remember it. It was learned.

 

Best wishes

 

David

 

Dr David Mathew, PhD, MA, PGCE, SFHEA

Centre for Learning Excellence

University of Bedfordshire

Park Square F305

Luton LU1 3JU

 

Contact: [log in to unmask]

NEW: Journal of Pedagogic Development

NEW: Books by David Mathew

 

 

From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alison.James
Sent: 19 July 2017 06:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "we are not a therapeutic community"

 

I think some very sound points have been made about the distinction between therapy and learning development, however I would just like to pick up on the point that Helen made about learning having to be destabilising, troublesome, challenging - otherwise it is not learning. I think we have to be careful about saying anything outside these descriptors is not learning as it excludes all the times that students 'take' to something, have a flair or love for it and find something new and easy and grow within it because they are playing to some kind of strength. I had exactly this experience learning French at secondary school - I couldn't explain how but it just all made sense and I found it easy to grasp and to build on my learning. I was definitely learning, as I went on to be a French teacher for 12 years!  Physics, on the other hand, was a whole world of pain. I saw the same pattern repeated time and again in creative arts education - the mixture of tough and enjoyable. So I think we must not forget the positive aspects of learning as well as the more testing ones (no pun intended).

 

All best

 

Alison

 

Professor Alison James

Acting Director, Academic Quality and Development

University of Winchester

Sparkford Rd

Winchester

Hants S022 4NR

 

National Teaching Fellow 2014

Principal Fellow Higher Education Academy

From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Pauline Ridley [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 July 2017 17:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "we are not a therapeutic community"

Spot on Helen - you've articulated exactly what I was thinking but hadn't yet found the words to express! I would only add that as academics, tutors, LDers or anyone else in a non-therapeutic role, we should know when and how to refer students to appropriate specialist services

Best wishes

Pauline

------------ 

Pauline Ridley

 


On 18 Jul 2017, at 17:06, Helen Webster <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I would hesitate to think of LD as a therapeutic activity. For me, therapy is a healing activity (half my family are clinical psychologists, so I don't see therapy as a negative thing, I'm just clear that's not what I do), and that implies that the student is unwell, and needs to be brought to health, is disordered, and needs to be helped to good order. Learning development, on the other hand, I think, accepts that learning is by its very nature challenging, destabilising, unsettling, 'troublesome' - and if it's not, it's not learning. To learn something is to challenge your worldview - that's quite something! I think as LDers we do help students explore their feelings around that, which are bound to be strong if they are really engaged - and these feelings can be negative or as Sandra says, very positive.  But I think to call this therapy implies that the feelings that come with learning are in some way problematic instead of a perfectly natural and inevitable part of the process.

 

Where the problem arises is that the situation that John outlines has made university a very unsafe place to experience this unsettling, troublesome activity of learning. None of this - the employability agenda, fees, the examination regime in schools, has really got anything to do with learning and in fact is profoundly unhelpful. How can students feel secure enough to take risks, explore the unknown, make mistakes in this environment? How can they, when the environment itself is so unsafe? How can they learn in such a culture?

 

We aren't counsellors and for individual students, I don't feel I can support mental health issues or other things that impact on their ability to learn. I can take them into account in my work, but I can't help with them. There does come a point when an individual has so much going on in their lives that the upheaval of learning isn't a good thing to add to the mix at that time. I can't do therapy, I can't heal, and learning isn't something to be healed anyway. But I can fight for a university community which does its best to create a safe place to experience the unsettlingness of learning in a compassionate way, which is as inclusive and diverse as possible, remembering that its whole purpose is to help students learn and to assess that learning without getting hung up on rigid means, and try to fight against the whole culture that counteracts learning.

 

best wishes

 

Helen

 

 

 

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 4:35 PM, Juliette Smeed <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear John,

 

Why not be a therapeutic community? I would argue because it is not in students’ best interests. To my mind a therapeutic community is one that supports students where they are and helps move them onto a ‘better’ place – be that emotionally, physically, educationally or whatever. Perhaps that’s a narrow perspective.  

 

In contrast, I would advocate for academic learning communities that can say, ‘This is who we are. This is what we do. Our primary focus is to help you join us.’ Now I understand that might not be popular with people who would like students to primarily lead their own learning, but as a therapeutic ‘good’ it has a great deal of value. First, it is honest: we do want students (to start at least) to learn to think in particular ways about ideas whose value we have determined. Second, it affords greater opportunities for students to develop a sense of belonging, which I believe is currently a great malaise among university students. They don’t really know why they are here. Third, it makes it easier for us to state clear expectations and give students a chance to meet those expectations, so they can feel good about their achievements more often and anxious about their performance less often.

 

Perhaps what is wrong with universities is not that they fail to shift to accommodate the realities of student experiences, but rather that they shift just a bit, enough so they can appear to be everything to all possible and potential students, and end up muddying the message. If we could be clearer on our learning agenda, then we would confuse students less, not play so large a role in causing students to behave badly, and get to feel a lot more certain when we have to take decisions on whether students stay at university or go. Because, then it is just a matter of deciding: with everything else going on, are they still capable of learning in this community?

 

OK, I’ve simplified it. But I do believe it is possible to focus on student wellbeing without becoming therapeutic about it.

 

Best wishes,

 

Juliette

 

Dr Juliette Smeed

Academic Skills, Business School

University of Buckingham, Hunter St, Buckingham MK18 1EG

Room 126, AdR Building

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Tel: 01280 827540  Email: [log in to unmask]

 

Visit the University's pages on Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism

 

 

 

From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Hilsdon
Sent: 14 July 2017 16:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "we are not a therapeutic community"

 

Dear all

 

I write with a musing, wondering how learning developers see this situation … I think my LD colleagues locally feel the crisis in mental health (e.g.  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/23/number-university-dropouts-due-to-mental-health-problems-trebles etc. etc. etc.) has been used as an excuse to justify a reduction in resources available for their work, and it certainly is true that we have expanded our support services for those areas here – i.e. for disability, mental health and wellbeing support – whilst LD has languished behind.

 

A phrase that became something of an in-joke, and latterly a sour joke, here is that ‘we are not a therapeutic community’. I am not sure who coined (sic) it first; maybe it was me, back in the days when it was less of an everyday occurrence to be dealing with serious mental health issues, expressions of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, self-medication and other disruptive and challenging behaviours. It was a comment that was intended to accompany expressions of doubt about the level of support we could offer to an unwell student, and the rightful role of university. It was brought out with regret to underscore how sorry we are that there comes a point when we need to say enough is enough and we can’t continue to help because that someone is too ill, too needy or their behaviour is too scary, and we have a duty to all our other students and to our staff, eventually to exclude or withdraw or suspend that person from study. And we do not have the skills, the expertise, the training … and we do not have the resources or the time … and university is not the right place for someone like that ...

 

And that is all ‘true’ - at least in part, but there are other interpretations. What do we expect? We admit almost half the population leaving school into university, having convinced them by fair means and foul that they need degrees, that they must invest in themselves, that they should borrow to finance this investment, with themselves as collateral, that their capital will pay off in time. Yet we know the levels of debt of graduates has risen precipitously (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/11/the-partys-over-how-tuition-fees-ruined-university-life) and that the so-called graduate premium in employment is less and less a reality. And at a time when life generally appears more precarious, more uncertain and more frightening than ever, we wonder why such a large number of our students become ill or behave in such challenging ways while they are with us. And, as NHS services to support the needs of those with mental ill-health cannot cope, again and again we hear that students are discharged from hospital or by their GPs, only to fall immediately back into trouble, and often university is their one hope of making life more positive … so we have invented ‘fitness to study’ policies that can exclude those in greatest need …   

 

So my question to universities is: why not be therapeutic communities? I’m being provocative - I don’t mean why not take on the NHS’s role, of course, nor expect to support those who have really dangerous conditions at university, but perhaps an acknowledgment of a therapeutic role, without the sneering, is what we need - and perhaps ‘compassionate university’ initiatives (https://charterforcompassion.org/91-partners/the-education-sector/schools-colleges-university-and-learning-institutional-partners/3914-the-worlds-first-compassionate-university) can offer an alternative to the dire rhetoric of edubusiness’ notions of students as human capital.

 

I was a learning developer before I was a manager of ‘wellbeing’ … LD is where my heart is – maybe there’s a greater role for LD in community building and PALS work, to respond to the MH crisis than is currently recognised?  

 

Best to all

 

John

 

John Hilsdon

Head of Learning Support and Wellbeing

Room 104, 4 Portland Mews

University of Plymouth

Drake Circus

Plymouth

PL4 8AA

+44 (0)1752 587750

 

[log in to unmask]

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/jhilsdon

 

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