Dear everyone
I've really enjoyed these discussions. When I first became interested in the whole student transition research I spent a very long time talking to some (then) current first year students and final year students asking them to reflect on their first year at university, their transition to HE, etc etc and this line of enquiry brought me towards a social constructivist approach of working with students in ways that they construct their own learning - scaffolded by stepping stones to help them cross the divide and reach their goals. Wrapped up in all of this was definitely the notion of 'identity' and 'becoming' which I know a lot of colleagues are doing further work on.
However, I don't want to lose the original thread of discussion which was about sharing ideas for activities for prospective students to university regarding 'study skills'.
Could we then, take any further discussion re the theoretical discussions to another thread and invite any other suggestions of ideas for work that can be undertaken with prospective students to introduce them to the idea of university on this thread, just so we don't lose the thread as it were!
Best wishes
Chris
Christine Keenan FHEA
Chair of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education
Learning and Teaching Fellow
School of Design, Engineering & Computing
Bournemouth University
Poole House
Fern Barrow
Poole Dorset
BH12 5BB
Tel: 01202 965307
www.aldinhe.ac.uk
www.learnhigher.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eloise Sentito
Sent: 29 June 2012 00:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
I think I was wondering whether your question Len was 'what are the grand theories that might underly LD work, e.g. social constructivism, critical theory or whatever?' My question then is 'do
we/should we/can we build our own? And I'm toying with the answer that this might not be necessary...?
Eloïse
Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Eloise Sentito
Sent: 28/06/2012 23:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
Thanks Len, these seem like really great suggestions, and I think the (young) field of LD would do well to explore those that it may not yet have explored. I (for one) am (hazily) aware of pursuits of some of them, ignorant of pursuits of others, but keen;y aware of some. For instance I would specifically refer you (because I very recently attended a really inspiring talk - not because he's the only or necessarily most relevant one discussing it - he's not an 'LDer', for a start) to Gert Biesta's work problematising vocabulary such as 'learning' and 'learner'.
I'd like to caution you, if I may, against generalising about all of us practitioners/researchers in the field of LD, as for many of us (especially when we have a linguistics/languages background, as I think quite a few of us do), few terms are 'taken for granted', but are actually analysed to the point of complete collapse!
Also of course we all come from different disciplines and will look at LD through different lenses, so whereas your lens might have a management/social science f-stop, mine for instance would have an arts/humanities one, which would potentially result in quite different explorations based on quite different theoretical underpinnings (and methods, and thought patterns, and conceptual frameworks - and ideology of course, for that matter - if not to say literacies, and even (metaphorically) languages!).
So I guess a key question that emerges here is to what extent LD needs/has its 'own' theoretical bases, and to what extent is it useful/bound to 'borrow' from (all) other disciplines?
Eloïse
Plymouth University
________________________________________
From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leonard Holmes [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 28 June 2012 23:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
Eloise
Well it does seem to me that very little work in the LDHE area draws upon bodies of theoretical work such as
- the tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology; it does seem to me that the way that Goffman examines the 'moral career' (ie identity project) of the mental patient from a sociological, rather than psychiatric, perspective (cf recent discussion re. social and mental models), suggests similar approach to students entering, going through, and emerging from higher education institutions; or Everett Hughes earlier work on careers; both seeking to examine the interaction between individual lives and social structures;
- there seems to be little work that uses the phenomenological epoche, to 'bracket' taken-for-granted assumptions, the 'naturalistic attitude' eg about learning, skill etc;
- the work of LDHE seems to me to be amenable to examination in terms of Abbott's exploration of the 'system of professions', in which an occupation group attempts to claim jurisdiction over an area of 'human problems amenable to expert service' - but where such attempts may be rebuffed, or lose out to the claims of other occupational groups; yet I've seen no work adopting such an approach;
- generally, the range of theoretical approaches that seek to engage with the micro-macro, structure-action, individual-collective problematics, seem lacking: eg structuration theory, actor-network theory, assemblage theory, configurational sociology, governance theory;
- it seems to me to be very little consideration that a particular term might be used as very different types of concept in different discourses (eg descriptive, explanatory, evaluative), and the consequences for the 'logical grammar' of particular discourses (learning and skills being prime examples).
Maybe such work is out there, maybe I've missed it. I'd be grateful to hear of any, or reasons why these approaches are considered not relevant to LDHE as an arena of enquiry.
Len
-------------------------
Dr Leonard Holmes
Reader in Management
University of Roehampton | London | SW15 5PJ
www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes<http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes>
Centre for Organizational Research
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8392 8151 |
Follow us on TWITTER | Find us on FACEBOOK
Watch us on YOUTUBE| Check in on FOURSQUARE
________________________________________
From: Eloise Sentito [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 28 June 2012 12:19
To: Leonard Holmes; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: activities for prospective students
Hi Len and all,
This sounds like a really important question. Can you elaborate on how LD theoretical underpinnings (as opposed to empirical research, I guess you mean?) tend to differ from ED or broader educational ones and maybe offer some examples?
Eloïse
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leonard Holmes
Sent: 28 June 2012 11:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
Nick
not really - the important second question remains unresolved. That is part of the reason, I believe, that LDHE still struggles to gain what Abbott calls 'jurisdiction' as part of its claim on professionalism.
Len
-------------------------
Dr Leonard Holmes
Reader in Management
University of Roehampton | London | SW15 5PJ www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes<http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes>
Centre for Organizational Research
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8392 8151 |
Follow us on TWITTER | Find us on FACEBOOK Watch us on YOUTUBE| Check in on FOURSQUARE
________________________________________
From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Bowskill [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 28 June 2012 10:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
Christine, I think you've more than covered any concerns raised by Leonard there ;-)
Nick
On 28 June 2012 10:43, Christine Keenan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear all
> I'm responding as someone who has researched, currently researches, and has published about, the phenomenon of transition and integration into HE of new (generally for my research 18 year old) entrants into HE for many years now. I have evidence from robustly conducted research projects that I have either led or partnered funded by HEFCE, the HEA and other major HE funding bodies that demonstrate the value and impact of developmental transition interventions in enhancing early social and academic integration. I know, from collaborations I have been involved in with colleagues in a wide variety of disciplines and institutions, that the approaches are not context specific, ie, the underlying principles are transferable. For example, I have just completed some National HE STEM projects looking at transition to HE STEM programmes and found that the concepts I have been looking at in other areas, are eminently transferable across disciplines, and are accessible for a wide diversity of students and, the staff who work with them.
>
> I'll be interested to hear any other comments, as I know that a number of us in the #LoveLD world are busy working in this very complex and fascinating aspect of student experience.
>
> Furthermore, ALDinHE absolutely insists on an evidence and research base for all the resources and materials we collectively develop for LearnHigher for example, and, our peer reviewed journal offers a scholarly view of a range of our community's interests.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> Christine Keenan FHEA
> Chair of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education
> Learning and Teaching Fellow School of Design, Engineering & Computing
> Bournemouth University Poole House Fern Barrow Poole Dorset
> BH12 5BB
>
> Tel: 01202 965307
>
> www.aldinhe.ac.uk<http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk>
> www.learnhigher.ac.uk<http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: learning development in higher education network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leonard Holmes
> Sent: 28 June 2012 10:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
>
> Interesting discussion. Two questions:
> - what evidence is there of the effectiveness of these activities (and, of course, what would 'effectiveness' mean)?
> - why would we expect such activities to work, ie what is the underlying theoretical understanding on which they are based?
>
> Thee is the old joke that an academic is someone who sees something working in practice, and wonders if it will work in theory. But there is an important point in that - unless we understand why something works in a particular context, we cannot be confident that it will work in another, or at another time - and we cannot work out how to amend it when it fails to work as desired.
> As I've repeatdely argued, LDHE sorely needs robust theoretical underpinninggoing beyond vague and problematic notions of learning and skills located within the individual.
>
> Len
> -------------------------
>
> Dr Leonard Holmes
> Reader in Management
> University of Roehampton | London | SW15 5PJ
> www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes<http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/LeonardHolmes>
> Centre for Organizational Research
>
> Tel: +44 (0) 20 8392 8151 |
>
> Follow us on TWITTER | Find us on FACEBOOK Watch us on YOUTUBE| Check
> in on FOURSQUARE
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: learning development in higher education network
> [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Emily Danvers
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 27 June 2012 15:39
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
>
> Hi Helen,
>
> We have 'a day in the life of an academic' stories on our new students website http://www.brunel.ac.uk/services/headstart/understanding-university/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-academic. You could get students to explore the differences between teaching and learning in HE and elsewhere using these (or adapted versions).
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> Emily
>
> Emily Danvers
> Academic Skills (ASK) Manager
> ASK Academic Skills
> The Library
> Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH
> 01895 266147
> www.brunel.ac.uk/library/ask<http://www.brunel.ac.uk/library/ask>
> New student? Get a Headstart on studying at university
> www.brunel.ac.uk/headstart<http://www.brunel.ac.uk/headstart>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: learning development in higher education network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kim Shahabudin
> Sent: 27 June 2012 14:28
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: activities for prospective students
>
> Hi Helen,
>
> There are lots of activities embedded in this set of webpages which are expressly designed to make explicit the development from school to uni study: http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/studyadvice/NewtoUniversity/sta-newtouniversity.aspx.
>
> Hope that's helpful,
>
> Kim
>
> ________________________________
> Dr Kim Shahabudin, FHEA, Study Adviser, Study Advice & Maths Support
> 1st floor The Library, Whiteknights, University of Reading, RG6 6AE
> * 0118 378 4645 * www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice<http://www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice> twitter: @unirdg_study
> Please note that I now work part-time and am not usually on campus on
> Mondays and Tuesdays
>
> ________________________________________
> From: learning development in higher education network
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Helen Capstick
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 27 June 2012 13:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: activities for prospective students
>
> Would appreciate any ideas for activities for prospective students to university regarding 'study skills' if anyone has a minute.
> There will be @25-30 in the group who are all sixth formers on a summer school 2 day event here. Would like to make the two 1 hour sessions interactive if possible.
> Many thanks
> Helen Capstick
>
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--------------------------------------
Nicholas Bowskill,
Faculty of Education,
University of Glasgow
Shared Thinking - a Collectivist Pedagogy
Web Site: http://www.sharedthinking.info
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Internet communications are not guaranteed to be secure or virus-free. University of Roehampton does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from unauthorised access to, or interference with, any Internet communications by any third party, or from the transmission of any viruses.
Any opinion or other information in this e-mail or its attachments that does not relate to the business of University of Roehampton is personal to the sender and is not given or endorsed by University of Roehampton.
University of Roehampton is the trading name of Roehampton University, a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England under number 5161359. Registered Office: Grove House, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PJ. An exempt charity.
Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.
This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the addressee and may also be privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the addressee, or have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system and do not copy, disclose or otherwise act upon any part of this email or its attachments.
Internet communications are not guaranteed to be secure or virus-free. University of Roehampton does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from unauthorised access to, or interference with, any Internet communications by any third party, or from the transmission of any viruses.
Any opinion or other information in this e-mail or its attachments that does not relate to the business of University of Roehampton is personal to the sender and is not given or endorsed by University of Roehampton.
University of Roehampton is the trading name of Roehampton University, a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England under number 5161359. Registered Office: Grove House, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PJ. An exempt charity.
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