Dr Catherine Bovill & Dr Jane MacKenzie

Academic Development Unit

University of Glasgow

The first year student experience: student engagement through peer support and curriculum design

Overview

• Scottish Quality Enhancement Themes context• Peer support project• Curriculum design project• What you are currently doing to enhance the first year

experience• What you plan to do to enhance the first year experience

Quality Enhancement Framework

• Institutional review of subjects/disciplines• Enhancement-led institutional reviews (ELIR)• Improving information about quality• Greater student representation in quality systems• National programme of enhancement themes

Quality Enhancement

Previous themesAssessmentResponding to student needsEmployabilityFlexible deliveryIntegrative assessmentThe first yearResearch-teaching linkagesNew themeGraduates for the 21st Century:

Integrating the Enhancement Themes

Quality Enhancement Themes

• Sector wide discussion: the nature & purposes of first year• Student expectations, experiences and reflections• Curriculum design • Transition to and during the first year• Peer support • Personal development planning• Personalisation• Transforming assessment and feedback• Introducing scholarship skills

First year experience projects

• Literature review• Gathering of case studies• Recommendations for

– policymakers– practitioners – Students

• Student engagement and empowerment

First year projects’ brief

Jane MacKenzie, Learning and Teaching Centre and

Fiona Black, Recruitment, Admissions and Participation Service

Peer support in the first year

Student integration

Favoured model in student retention research arising from the work of Tinto and others

Integration needs to be both Academic and Social and with the Institution

Peer support – belonging

“For some students, a sense of belonging will develop as a matter of course; for others this may not happen unless the institution makes an effort.”

Longden and Yorke (2004)

Some definitions

First year – the first year a student, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, spends in higher education

Peer – our focus is on students from the same institution but from any year

Horizontal – same year group

Vertical – older years supporting younger

Support – means both academic and social support

Explicit and implicit support - interventions/practice that aid student integration – in some instances the practice is solely to support and in others it’s a ‘side effect’

Buddying/mentoring Peer Assisted LearningOnline networks e.g. VLEs, FaceBookStudent Learning Communities/Freshman Interest Groups

Student societies Self-selected study groupsFriendsResidences

Small group learning opportunities, e.g. tutorials/labsCollaborative learning opportunities/group projects

Explicit

Implicit

Kember, Lee & Li (2001) point out that a sense of belonging is more likely to develop in small groups.

“the logical consequence is then to attempt to build a sense of belonging with relatively small units such as departments rather than large impersonal bodies like a university”

Engagement involves learning, accepting and conforming to the norms of the institution. From the point of view of peer support in the first year, learning the norms of the institution and thus engaging with it can be encouraged by providing first year students with suitable ‘space’ where they can interact with peers in an academic and a social context.

Space for engagement

Institutional policy makers: to demonstrate through policy, practice and funding an institutional philosophy that recognises the benefit of collaborative learning and opportunities for students to meet in small groups to aid social and academic integration

 

Practitioners: to design curricula, courses and learning activities that build-in small group learning opportunities

Recommendations: Space for engagement

Providing students with a voice means that we need to accept that students might make decisions that do not ‘fit’ the institutional view.

They might: challenge the authority of the tutor, department or institution; question the status quo and act in a way that does not fit the model of the ideal student, for example by not attending lectures.

Voice for empowerment

Institutional policy makers: to publish the outcome of annual evaluations in formats accessible to students and to make public changes implemented in response to that feedback

Practitioners: departments should consider setting up peer support partnerships where student representatives work in pairs to attend staff-student liaison committees.

Institutional policy makers/practitioners: to consider finding opportunities for students (including first years) to work as student sabbatical officers or student interns to engage in areas of priority for the university.

 

Recommendations: Voice for empowerment

Dr Catherine BovillAcademic Development UnitUniversity of Glasgow

Dr Kate Morss & Dr Cathy Bulley, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

Curriculum design for the first year

Student engagement & empowerment

Curriculum design

Influences

Impacts on

• first year of undergraduate programmes • many overlaps with other projects

Focus of the project

Data collection methods

1) Literature review

2) Staff workshops x 2 (n=60) ‘ideal first year curriculum’

3) Student focus groups x 3 (n=21)

4) Case studies (n=25 → 8 + 5 mini)- FY practitioners (QAA database)

- HEA subject centres

- enhancement themes website

- contacted FY & curriculum authors

Key themes: Content

1) early and regular feedback

(all data sources)

2) active learning and problem-based learning approaches (literature, staff and case studies)

3) ‘learning communities’ to enhance transferable skills and a sense of belonging (literature and case studies)

Key themes: Process

1) students should be participants (staff, students, case studies + more general literature) 2) ‘ideal’ process for curriculum design (literature):

identify start and end points (abilities on entry; programme aim) through consultation with students, graduates and employers facilitate progression of learning through strategic use

of L&T and assessment strategies across the programme and first year in particular evaluate student engagement and empowerment before and after curriculum redesign

Cautionary note

Most literature reviewed provided:

a) suggested strategies or

b) examples of innovation with no evaluation

As a result there is a danger of building

a “…massive but trivial literature”

McInnes (2001:112)

Recommendations made in this context

Recommendations

staff need support in the form of:• dedicated time and rewards for innovation• institutional support for improving the FY experience• resources for further evaluation, research and scholarship

there is also a need for:• a ‘birds-eye view’ approach • pragmatism: start small (module-level strategies) • involvement of first year students in design• further evaluation, research and scholarship focusing on

curriculum design

Resources

• QAA(Scotland) Quality Enhancement Themes Websitehttp://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/default.asp

• QAA (Scotland) Peer support in the first year report

http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/documents/firstyear/PeerSupport_FinalReport.pdf

• QAA (Scotland) First Year curriculum design report

http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/documents/firstyear/Curriculum_Design_final_report.pdf

• First year student learning experience questionnairehttp://senate.gla.ac.uk/qa/studentvoice/1st_Year.pdf

• Retention Working group action plan• First year course co-ordinators’ meeting 29th May 2009

Small groups (1)

What are you currently doing to encourage students to get together academically and socially?

OR

What are the current opportunities in your course for students to become involved in curriculum design?

Small groups (2)

What could you redesign about one of your courses that would enable students to get together?

OR

What could you redesign about one of your courses that would enable students to become more involved in curriculum design?