The context of the institutional teaching and learning conference: a ground-clearing exercise

Institutional teaching and learning conferences are a significant part of the academic calendar in many UK universities.  A simple ground-clearing exercise was undertaken to investigate the scale and scope of these events in the 2015/16 academic year.  This study notes the impact that national discussions have had on the content and focus of some conferences, and highlights consistencies in theme and sub-theme, with sessions imbued with a learning, teaching or strategic orientation.  Institutional teaching and learning conferences are pervasive but their essence is also shaped by institutional culture and mission.  However, patterns of conformity were apparent in the way programmes were structured, often with a mix of short paper presentations and workshops. The paper concludes by considering these implications and offers questions for future research.  A version of this paper (‘Measured discussion: what UK institutional teaching and learning conferences tell us about ‘what matters most’’) was first presented to the HEIR (Higher Education Institution Research) Conference, hosted by LJMU in September 2016

Fostering internationalisation: the benefits to home students of mentoring international students

There is a substantial and growing body of research on the experience of international students in higher education, much of which focuses on the disappointing levels of integration between visitors and their host community. This article reports on a study of a pilot mentoring project designed to promote interaction between home and international students. Few studies have investigated the home students’ experience of internationalization. The aim of this study was to gain insights into the experience of a small group of undergraduate business students who had acted as volunteer mentors to international students. Data was collected from a survey and via qualitative interviews with the mentors. Participants in the study revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude to the experience and reported many benefits. Although students sometimes demonstrated an over-­‐simplistic notion of cultural difference, they also displayed an openness and willingness to interact with, and learn from, people from other cultures

Sustainable feedback and academic attainment: exploring the links in the modern higher education student

The expectation of current higher education students is that they are an independent, self-regulated learner who work in partnership with their institution to engender lifelong learning skills that can be applied in both education and employment.  Such learners are able to monitor, direct and optimise their own learning by effectively evaluating their progress towards achieving their learning goals, proceeding with confidence, determination and resilience towards their desired outcomes.  The central thesis advanced here is that a dialogic, sustainable feedback cycle may be the most valuable mechanism through which to develop such learners.  We propose that through dialogue around feedback and effective engagement with the feedback provided, students may develop agency in their studies and improve their mental toughness and academic self-efficacy, enabling them to both set, and evaluate progress towards self-determined learning goals and thus enter into a beneficial learning partnership with agents of their institution

Sector reports review: September 2016 to January 2017

This paper provides a summary of key reports and papers published by UK HE sector organisations between September 2016 and January 2017.  The organisations and groups covered are: Department for Education (DfE); Disabled Students’ Sector Leadership Group; Higher Education Academy (HEA); Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE); Heads of e-Learning Forum (HeLF); Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI); Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA); Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR); Jisc; jobs.ac.uk; Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE); New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff; Northern Universities Consortium (NUCCAT); Office for Fair Access (OFFA); Prospects/Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS); Quality Assurance Agency (QAA); Social Market Foundation; Student and Assessment Classification Working Group (SACWG); Social Mobility Advisory Group (SMAG); Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS); University and College Union (UCU); Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA); and Universities UK (UUK).The themes covered in this paper include: HE participation and enrolments; academic teaching qualifications; recruitment of teaching staff; the Higher Education and Research Bill (including the Teaching Excellence Framework); teaching quality; the Bell Review; re-assessment practice; supporting technology-enhanced learning; learning analytics; learning spaces; student satisfaction; equality and diversity; admissions and unconscious bias; supporting transition (in university and after graduation); student wellbeing; university rankings; partnership in universities; civic engagement; internationalisation; and alternate providers of HE

Perceptions of the natural environment in undergraduate students: influence of degree programme and learning style

 A study of over 400 first year undergraduates sought to link environmental perception with the degree programme being taken and their perceived approach to learning using a range of measures. A questionnaire was used to assess whether students had a strong feeling of closeness of association with nature; assessed their views on environmental issues and if they thought of the natural environment in a wide, ‘wholistic’ way or a narrow, compartmentalist way. Results indicated that their environmental perception varied significantly according to the type of degree being taken, with those taking natural science subjects and arts tending to perceive a greater closeness to nature, hold more pro-environmental views and perceive the natural environment in a more integrative way than students taking psychology and law degrees. Students taking pharmacy and biomedical programmes scored more highly on pro-environmental views than students taking either psychology or law but tended to perceive the environment in a more narrow, compartmentalist way. The students perceived approach to learning was not a significant controlling variable in determining their closeness to nature, to their environmental views or perception of the natural environment

Bridging the gap: a synthesis of the literature in relation to the impact of work placements on student learning

This paper, presented as an essay, has been developed from a Masters dissertation that examined the impact of work placements on student learning development.  Presented here is a synthesis of papers that informed the approach to the study.  It examines the literature in relation to student perspectives on work placements, reflecting on aspects such as its relationship with enhancing employability and prospects, resilience and the social significance of workplace learning

a reflection on the pros and cons of the \u27crit\u27 as a method for delivering feedback and conducting assessment: a case study

The \u27crit\u27 is a feedback and assessment method used in architectural education and many other art and design subjects. It is unquestionably adopted as the singular method for formative feedback and assessment. This paper reflects on the \u27crit\u27 in the light of contemporary teaching theory and identifies a number of its strengths and shortcomings. Reflection on a practice is based on a case-study of the use of this approach in one programme area. Recognising that the \u27crit\u27 is unlikely to be supplanted by any other feedback or assessment method, reflection has generated suggestions as to how it could become a more effective learning tool

Joining up work-related learning: working effectively with industry

At Liverpool John Moores University\u27s Centre for Sport, Dance and Outdoor Education, staff within the Sport Development programmes feel it is vitally important to enable students to gain as broad a range of employment-related skills as possible. To that end, tutors work to ensure that work-based learning (WBL) and work-related learning (WRL) are an integral part of the BA (Hons) Sport Development with Physical Education (PE) programme and this has been the case since its inception in 1999

Student views of assessment and feedback

Assessment and feedback have long been recognised as crucial aspects of the student learning experience and occupy much effort on the part of students and tutors alike. The inception of the National Student Survey has exposed the extent to which students are dissastified with assessment and feedback. This paper reports the finding of a major institution-wide survey into students\u27 perceptions and experience of assessment and feedback. Much research on assessment is discipline-specific, but this study surveyed students from all four typrical typologies of university subjects: hard or soft, pure or applied. The findings revealed very little difference between students in terms of what they want from assessment and feedback. Indeed, not only were there few apparent connections between discipline and preference for feedback or assessment style, but this seemed to be unrelated to features such as age, mode of study or level of study. Regardless of any of these factors, students universally preferred timely one-to-one feedbac