Contextualising, Embedding and Mapping (CEM): A model and framework for rethinking the design and delivery of an in-sessional academic literacy programme support

The paper documents the background, research and preliminary findings relating to a key area emerging in Higher Education institutions in the UK: providing academic language and study skills to support international students running concurrently with their degree programmes. The paper presents research carried out by an academic literacy specialist and a Programme Director in the postgraduate area of Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University. The paper documents a critique of past practice and research leading to identification of key issues influencing the attendance and participation of overseas students on an in-sessional academic literacy programme. To address these issues, a model was developed model which identified Contextualisation, Embedding and Mapping (CEM) as the foundation for improving academic literacy programme provision. The findings show that application of the CEM model is already demonstrating added value in the key areas of student attendance, understanding of the relevance of the academic literacy programme and integration within degree programme learning objectives and outcomes. To address the issue of sustaining the benefits of the CEM model the work concludes with the development of a framework which establishes the integration of an academic literacy programme within postgraduate programmes both at the strategic level through teaching and learning policies and at operational level through programme and module development

The value and impact of cross professional collaborations in developing student information and academic literacy skills at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

The paper is jointly written by an academic and librarian and discusses the value and impact of two examples of cross professional collaboration at Sheffield Hallam University. The collaborations addressed information and academic literacy skills development of 640 students across four years and involved a librarian, an academic, an academic skills tutor and an e-learning expert. The paper includes analysis on the value and impact of cross-professional collaborations in developing student information literacy (IL) and academic literacy skills. It concludes with discussion of lessons learned and best practice recommendations

Literacy practices: using the literacies for learning in further education framework to analyse literacy practices on a post-compulsory education and training teacher education programme

The Literacies for learning in further education framework describes nine aspects of a literacy practice that elaborate the basic questions of what?, why?, who?, and how? that are needed to understand and describe literacy practices. The framework was used to analyse two literacy practices encountered on initial teacher education courses in the post-compulsory education and training (PCET) phase of the Teacher Education Department in order to understand those literacy practices and improve them. The framework was found to be a useful tool in articulating competing and contradictory purposes in literacy practices in order to clarify them particularly in the context of the complex partnership and stakeholder relationships within teacher education. It was also useful as a planning tool to support collaborative work between the PCET phase of the Teacher Education Department and faculty-based and central support services in supporting the academic literacy of trainees. The use of the framework by other University departments should be considered in supporting academic literacy

Measuring the Impact of an Academic Literacy Programme at a South African University of Technology

Published ArticleAcademic literacy programs have become an inherent feature of South African universities. They are a form of intervention aimed at helping first-year students boost their levels of academic literacy so that their chance of success at the university is enhanced. It is important therefore, that such programs are investigated for the impact they can make. In the present paper, a pre-post research design was employed to measure the impact of a course of academic literacy among students who were not simultaneously enrolled in any university course that could lead to them achieving incidental growth in academic literacy. In other words, at the time the study was conducted, the participants took this academic literacy course only. The results showed that there was a difference in the levels of academic literacy levels of these students after they had attended the course

Investigating the learning transfer of genre features and conceptual knowledge from an academic literacy course to business studies: Exploring the potential of dynamic assessment

Academic literacy courses aim to enable higher education students to participate in their chosen academic fields as fully as possible. However, the extent to which these students transfer the academic skills taught in these courses to their chosen disciplines is still under-researched. This article reports on a study that investigated the potential of dynamic assessment (an assessment approach that blends instruction into assessment) in the transfer of genre features and conceptual knowledge among undergraduate business studies students in a UK public university. The data includes three students’ written assignments (N = nine), interviews (N = three) and business studies tutor (N = three) feedback. Drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning and a genre theory based on Systemic Functional Linguistics, the data were analysed. The findings suggest that dynamic assessment may contribute to the transfer of genre features and conceptual knowledge to a new assessment context. Implications of this for academic literacy instruction and assessment design are presented

Entry-level students' reading abilities and what these abilities might mean for academic readiness

he National Benchmark Tests Project (NBTP) was commissioned by Higher Education South Africa and became operational in 2009. One of the main aims of the NBTP is to assess the extent to which entry-level students might be said to be ready to cope with the conventional demands of academic study in three key areas: academic literacy; quantitative literacy; and mathematics. This paper presents an analysis of the academic literacy readiness of a sample of registered students as reflected in their performance on the NBT in Academic Literacy, a standardised assessment developed in the context of the wider project. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the construct of academic literacy as operationalised in the test. This is followed by a categorised empirical analysis of test-takers’ performance on the test, in which the levels of academic readiness of these test-takers are presented and discussed. The argument presented highlights the diverse range of academic literacy levels of entry-level students, as well as implying the teaching and learning interventions that might be necessary to improve readiness. Concluding comments argue that some groups of students may be unable to cope with conventional academic literacy demands in the absence of explicit intervention