Independent learning – what we do when you’re not there

Independent learning is one of the cornerstones of UK higher education yet it is poorly understood by students and is seen by politicians as a poor substitute for face to face teaching. This paper explores students’ understandings, approaches and experiences of independent learning and how they may become more effective independent learners. This large scale qualitative study, funded by the HEA, included students-as-researchers, independent learning diaries, and student-led interviews. Findings suggest that students initially use low level reinforcing and organising skills and in later stages of their courses develop higher level extending and applying skills. Clearer guidance, clearer tasks and in-course support are amongst the students’ recommendations for enhancing independent learning. However the most powerful influence on their independent learning was the support, collaboration and advice of other (more experienced) students in non-assessed scenarios. These findings have implications for staff involved in induction, student support, curriculum design and for staff and officers in Students’ Unions

Alternative strategies for the development of mathematical thinking amongst undergraduate business studies students within the context of Operations Management

CELT project on changing practice through innovation and research.Author suggests alternative strategies for the development of mathematical thinking amongst undergraduate business studies students and describes attempts to initiate this and other changes within the context of an undergraduate operations management module and evaluates the effects of the changes on students’ mathematical thinking

Developing alternative teaching skills through a programme of video analysis and mentoring

Report of a CELT project on supporting students through innovation and researchIn 2000, the University of Wolverhampton's Learning and Teaching Strategy funded an innovation project to change a traditionally taught module to a module based on social constructivist principles. The project team found that whilst the changes to the module improved student learning, they had overlooked the demands these alternative methods would make on the teaching skills and expertise of colleagues. The changes not only required lecturers to think differently about how they teach, they also required them to act differently in the classroom e.g. from ‘telling’ to ‘questioning’ behaviour. Getting students to actively engage with each other and negotiate meaning, rather than imparting knowledge, seemed particularly problematic. At times it was all too tempting to revert back to telling students what they ‘should’ know rather than facilitating the generation of students’ own ideas and encouraging a spirit of enquiry. Of course there could be many factors that affect classroom practice, including the teacher’s beliefs about the students and the subject she is teaching. I therefore conjectured that in order to develop appropriate instructional behaviour we would first need to understand and work on the factors affecting classroom behaviour

Developing journal writing skills in undergraduates: the need for journal workshops

In recent years, journal writing has become a popular tool for assessing student learning in Business Studies courses throughout UK universities. The writing-to-learn literature is full of the benefits of journal writing, not just as a means of assessing learning but as an essential part of the learning process itself. (Barclay, 1996; Borasi & Rose, 1989; Emig, 1987; Hogan, 1995; Holly 1987; Yinger & Clarke 1981, etc.). In the personal experience (as tutor) explored in this paper, however, journal writing failed to live up to expectations, both as a means of assessing the acquisition and application of subject specific knowledge, but also and more importantly, as a means of developing high level cognitive skills, such as reflection, analysis, critical thinking, evaluating, and hypothesising. In this paper I explain why journal writing failed to develop high level skills amongst a group of first year undergraduates in 1996. I then evaluate the effectiveness of a journal writing workshop designed to address high level skills amongst two similar groups of students in 1997

Challenging Research in Problem-based Learning

This chapter explores the challenges facing individual lecturers as they make the transition from traditional teaching to problem-based learning. This case study highlights the conceptual, epistemological and pedagogical challenges such a shift presents and suggests ways in which academics can be supported through this process in order to improve student learning. It is of significance to academic developers and practitioners

Removing the barriers? A study of the conditions affecting teaching innovation.

In this paper I present my view of effective academic work as creating the conditions for effective teaching and learning and I explore the barriers to this faced by one university lecturer when he adopted a student-focused approach to his teaching. I compare the lecturer's perception of the teaching situation to the Teaching Environment Inventory factors, and discuss how institutional policies and practices designed to improve standards and efficiency within the case study institution inhibited those designed to improve student learning. In this respect academic leaders were often perceived to create rather than remove barriers to effective academic work. Finally I consider what can be done to improve standards and efficiency as well as student learning

Swimming against the tide : an action research case study of one university lecturer's struggle to change his conceptions and practice of teaching (statistics) within a traditional teaching environment

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Innovations in Teaching Business & Management

This chapter describes and evaluates the range of learning, teaching and assessment strategies developed for an operations management module in order to inspire students to engage with statistical and mathematical ideas and applications. Adopting an action research approach, the authors explore the issues prior to the intervention and evaluate the effectiveness of them in the first cycle of action. It is of particular interest to practitioners

'Academic engagement' within a widening participation context—a 3D analysis

The growth in the student population within higher education against a background of government policy promoting the concept of 'widening participation' has led to much debate about the nature of university teaching. Academic engagement of all students within increasingly large and diverse classrooms has proved difficult to achieve. The research that we report here is part of a two-year ESRC/TLRP-funded project, whose key aim is to develop strategies for encouraging academic engagement and participation of all students by creating inclusive learning environments. In this paper, we report on the first stage of this project by exploring some of the sociological, epistemological and pedagogical reasons why learning environments may impact differently on first year students. We do this by asking over 200 'pre-entry students' what conceptions they have about higher education, university teachers, their subject and themselves as learners prior to enrolment at university. We consider how these conceptions might influence how they engage in, and benefit from, learning at university