Derek Rowntree
Posts: 35
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| 28/05/2007 23:51 |
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The overarching theme for three of our discussion fora is "Assessment and the first-year experience". This leads me to wonder what colleagues see as special about the first year of higher education compared with those that follow? And what are the implications for how we might be assessing differently in that first year?
In the first year we might expect, for example:
• Students who are uncertain or unrealistic about how well they will cope with learning at university level.
• Students with very diverse notions about what learning consists of (not least those from overseas).
• Students with equally diverse notions about how they might be taught.
• Students with hazy or inappropriate ideas about the concerns and methodologies of the disciplines they will be studying.
• Students who lack certain crucial prerequisite knowledge or skills.
• Students who are prone to distraction from social life, homesickness, job pressures, money worries, etc.
• Students who are suddenly deprived of the supportive networks they have relied on in the past.
• Students who suddenly find themselves studying in larger groups than they have ever known or, alternatively, all on their own.
How might we shape our assessment strategies to help provide such first-year students -- and others you will no doubt be able to identify -- with the support, guidance, diagnosis, motivation, enlightenment and personal feedback that will help them survive and prosper in their first year? I'm sure we shall find find many pointers in our three discussion fora, as well as elsewhere in the conference and from our own prior insights and experience. Where shall we start? |
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Alec Wersun
Posts: 7
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| 29/05/2007 10:28 |
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| It strikes me that perhaps more time and effort could be invested in the socialisation process for first year studetns, for all the reasons outlined above. Learning is a complex topic in itself, and yet the discipline-specific knowledge takes centre stage, pushing student understanding of "learning", and understanding of terms such as "formative" and "summative" in to the background in to the background. It seems to me that we need to engage students of all subjects in discussion about what learning is...learning styles, etc...I feel that we take it for granted that they understand our language.... |
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Mary Welsh
Posts: 12
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| 29/05/2007 10:41 |
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Surely one of the challenges is to teach students the language necessary to engage in professional
discourse? We need to teach them our language and give them experience (self & peer asseessment) and tools (the VLE/group discussion) to use it |
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Mary Welsh
Posts: 12
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| 29/05/2007 10:54 |
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Next year the course in which I am involved plans to spend more time at the start of the year providing opportunities for students to build relationships through a series of fun, but really very serious, group relationship-building tasks, e.g build the tallest tower with only one sheet of newspaper.
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Nigel Lindsey
Posts: 1
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| 29/05/2007 11:03 |
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| The issue of comprehension of language is a particularly relevant one and is in two areas, that of the general language of academia and that that is specific to the discpline being studied. This issue is compounded by the rapaid expansion in the numbers of students participating in HE. 30 years ago this was between 5-7% and often drawn from a group whose upbringing made them familiar with the language of an academic enviroment or who had the skills to learning this language very easily. Now with close to 40% participation the understanding of academic language does not appear to be as widespread or intuitive as it appears to have been in the past. The question is then do will help deevlop the skills to communicate effectively in a "academic voice" through exercises such as this or do we look to make the language we employ more accessible. |
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Janet Taylor
Posts: 10
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| 29/05/2007 11:06 |
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| In the first year subjects I am involved in (mostly maths) we have a very early assessment. It can take a number of diffeent forms but the focus is to get students to reflect on their current skills (language of university and the subject, their past success or otherwise) and to what they understand they now have to do.It is short, to the point and easy to mark but engages the students from week one. Most of my students are distance education students. Courses are large. |
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Janet Taylor
Posts: 10
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| 29/05/2007 11:13 |
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| I couldn't agree more with the last two postings concerning langugae of university study. A colleague Jill Lawrence in her work on key competencies for success university indicates that literacies embedded within university study are many and complex and cannot be assumed. Both students and staff have roles and responsibilities in this area. These are some of the things that our early assessments attempt to tackle. |
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Derek Rowntree
Posts: 35
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| 29/05/2007 12:19 |
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| We are suggesting so far, I think, that students need to learn about the forms of learning and how these may differ from discipline to discipline. Also that they need to learn how to write about their learning (or express it mathematically, physically, etc) appropriately according to their different disciplines. But are they to be expected to "just pick it up as they go along"? If not, who is to teach them? Aren't most academics just keen to get on with the subject-matter off their course rather than discuss the nature of the discipline and its norms of discourse? And will students support such discussion unless they are explicitly assessed on their grasp of it? |
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Poppy Pickard
Posts: 1
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| 29/05/2007 12:39 |
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Thank you Derek for starting this off.
Of course we are all very interested in first years and assessment because it also relates to retention.
It is useful to think about the variety that first year students present, and I would like to add to your last but one bullet points
"Students who are suddenly deprived of the supportive networks they have relied on in the past"
Some support networks that students have experienced in college can be almost too supportive to the extent that students may be assessed in a 'painting by numbers' mode. The task I have sometimes faced with some of the younger students, involves shifting the culture to one where students become independent learners and thinkers.
I would strongly support what Mary Walsh says, that at the outset we need to concentrate on building relationships, enabling students to get to know each other as well as the staff. This should help to build both confidence and engagement with the course.
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Janet Taylor
Posts: 10
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| 29/05/2007 12:40 |
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| I know that what I am suggesting, especially in the first year of study, is that academic skills need to be explicity embedded within all learning contexts and disciplines. Attempting to develop such skills separate from discipline work has not proven successful in the past from either the lecturers or the student perspectives. So how else to do it if we academics do not fascilitate the devleopment of these skills. The challenge of course is to do it large classes and in distance education groups, without overloading either the academic or the student. |
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Nick Baker
Posts: 1
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| 29/05/2007 13:37 |
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I would definitely agree with Janet's suggestions. One of the major challenges we face at my institution is that of a lack of curriculum design at the program level and a lack of responsibility taken by academics for embedding key literacies within their courses.
In an applied science degree for example, there are major issues with low numeracy and literacy that are compounded by academic staff not wanting to give feedback to students on these key areas. I would argue that literacy (particularly literacy in the language of the discipline) and numeracy are key graduate attributes we should be trying to achieve with such programs, but without institutional support that values these attributes, this is a tough sell.
I think that feedback and embedding key competencies for a discipline (no matter what the discipline) in each component of the program (course, learning activity, assessment, feedback, supporting resource materials etc) are critical to developing high quality graduates. |
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Mary Welsh
Posts: 12
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| 29/05/2007 13:57 |
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| I think we do need to make the language we use simpler and more accessible, but we also have to teach the language of the discipline. In some ways it's like preparing to visit a foreign country. As a linguist by training, I always try to learn some basic phrases in the langauge before going to a new country. I believe studying a new discipline is similar. Although, given the British apparent lack of propensity for learning foreign languages maybe I'm asking too much of most students! I believe there are some basic competencies we SHOULD teach, e.g critical thinking, analysis, information literacy, how to give and receive positive feedback. These skills should be part of personal development in all disciplines even if it is challenging to both staff and students. |
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Derek Rowntree
Posts: 35
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| 29/05/2007 15:17 |
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Mary Walsh and Poppy Picard agree "that at the outset we need to concentrate on building relationships, enabling students to get to know each other as well as the staff. This should help to build both confidence and engagement with the course." It should also help them feel that they "belong" in their new community.
But what sort of teaching/asssessment approaches might we use to accomplish this objective (among others)?
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Derek Rowntree
Posts: 35
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| 29/05/2007 15:28 |
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| Janet Taylor, picking up on the need to explicitly highlight/teach the methodological skills of the discipline as well as the content suggests that "The challenge of course is to do it large classes and in distance education groups, without overloading either the academic or the student." This reminds me how the late Arthur Marwick, in the OU's first history courses got studentys spending quite a lot of time on "the nature of history" (the discipline, that is) and how historians operate with various kinds of sources, and the criteria for judging historical writing. Likewise, I remember the philosophers modelling philosophical discourse on radio and TV (by engaging in it themselves) and another colleague (Ossie Hanfling) produced a structured workbook called "The Uses and Abuses of Argument" which helped students examine various kinds of academic writing. So, it can be done so long as someone thinks it worthwhile! |
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Mary Welsh
Posts: 12
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| 29/05/2007 15:44 |
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| In order to encourage students to build effective relationships with each other and staff we have to model that process ourselves. We should be open to collaboration with others and work towards that aim. Not all academic work needs to be "shut in an ivory tower" sort of activity (I would argue that none of it should be like that), we need to fooster an attitude of open collaboration/co-operation and understand what the differences in these two processes are. I have just returned from an international conference where academics, teacher educators and ICT scientists, egnineers, technicians all presented different aspects of blended learning but were united in agreement that we must all shar what we do wilingly for thegood of all. We are social animals who learn better when we engage with each other. However working effectively and harmoniously together is a skill that has to be learned and should be taught from the earliest days of our lives, never mind the Academy. To teach these skills requires a clear vision with a carefully mapped out curriculum and appropriate methods of teaching and assessment - constructive alignment a la Biggs if you like. The most appropriate method of assessment in supporting this process is formative assessment where students are encouraged to be reflective and self-regulated but are also taught how to support, engage and encourage others. Also, as I have said elsewhere ,we need to give them suitable experience, language and tools to implement the whole process. First year students actually CAN take responsisbility for assessing and supporting each other effectively but they DO need to be taught the most appropriates strategies and language to use. I myself particlularly like the well-known "Two stars and a wish" strategy and have used it successfully with students aged 3 to 83! Start with something as simple as that and alllow students to construct their own knowledge and gain skills in nurturing others. I train teachers so these skills ar absolutley vital. |
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Derek Rowntree
Posts: 35
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| 29/05/2007 16:10 |
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| I regret to say, Mary, that I have never come across 'the well-known "Two stars and a wish" strategy'. Please tell us more. |
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Mary Welsh
Posts: 12
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| 29/05/2007 16:21 |
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| "Two stars and a wish" is very simple. You tell the person you're assessing two things you like about his/her work and one thing you think may be improved. You may also suggest how you think that improvement might be made. The strategy can be used for both very simple and very complex pieces of work. |
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Mark Russell
Posts: 8
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| 29/05/2007 16:21 |
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| Two things you like, (stars) one thing you would like to see improved (wish). |
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Anne Tierney
Posts: 8
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| 29/05/2007 16:34 |
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| Sorry I joined this discussion late. I'd say certainly that the students need support in "socialisation" - we quite often see students who sit next to one another in labs week after week don't introduce themselves to one another. I get the first year students to "speed network" at their first meeting, so they mix a bit more than usual. In our second semester we have a group project which helps the socialisation process, and next year, we are moving it to semester 1, hopefully to speed up the process. There's also an interesting paper by Cook and Houston called "Mind the Gap: are students prepared for higher education?" in the Journal of Further & Higher Education which talks about how first year students persist in using strategies learnt at school, into the first semester of university (I'd say it persists longer). It's quite often difficult to get students to understand that this isn't school any more and styles of learning are different. That can be quite a hurdle for some students to get over. |
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Mark Russell
Posts: 8
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| 29/05/2007 16:54 |
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| For me Anne, itys about articulating the values of HE that is important - and I love the idea of speed network (miore info please). At Hertfordshire , in our engineering degree programmes we use the Great Egg Race as a vehcicle for socialisation. At day one, week one we say by the end of the week you would have designed and built a device that can throw an egg as far as possible. Oh and by the way you will be working in teams - (they actually compete against each other). That way we unashamedly get them to mix (on a task). We see these students still working in these initial groups in the final year. |
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