11 research outputs found
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'Taking me back to my school days...'The experiences of adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds in a distance learning HE environment
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Supporting adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds into higher education
This paper presents the work in progress of a professional doctorate in education (EdD) and is being published now, at a time when government priorities around widening access and participation to higher education (HE) in England are increasingly requiring HE providers to prioritise supporting mature1 students into and through HE. The Office for Students (OFS), a newly formed regulatory body for HE in England, positions adult learners within five priority areas for which HE providers should allocate resources to enable access and success in HE. This research contributes to these requirements through recommendations around the adult learner student voice and better (evidence-informed) understanding of the potential barriers they face, set within the context of a part-time distance-learning institution. Despite literature that suggests adult learners are not a homogeneous group (Waller, 2006; Pearce, 2017), many initiatives designed to support adult learners into HE focus upon programmes to develop confidence in academic ability and study skills, suggesting a 'one size fits all' approach. This research sought to explore this heterogeneity further as a first step to unpicking how policy makers and HE providers approach the support they offer to adult learners. The research was specifically focused on adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. One-to-one telephone interviews were undertaken with 12 students who had studied the institution's Access2 programme prior to embarking on a full degree. The student sample was filtered to present the most disadvantaged students (those from POLAR33 quintiles 1 and 2) with no previous HE experience and low previous educational qualifications, who had received a full fee waiver for the Access programme. Vignettes were used to aid the discussion, helping to overcome some of the ethical challenges that were raised through the institution's research approvals process. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis in NVivo. This paper presents some of the findings of the research, which reflect a life-history methodological approach with a view to informing current and future practice to support mature students in HE
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Do you have to be mobile to be socially mobile? Adult learners miss out again!
The paper reports on a preliminary review of institutional data against hot and cold spot areas identified in the recent Social Mobility Index (SMI) (Social Mobility Commission, 2016). The review sought to explore the extent to which Open University (OU) students from the lowest quintiles of the POLAR3 classification were represented in the SMI cold spot areas. Based on the premise that geographic mobility is a challenge for many disadvantaged students (Reay et al., 2001), a link between OU students from the lowest quintiles (one and two) and the cold spots may suggest that the opportunities open to them upon completion of their degree are limited. This potentially has implications for all HE providers if the HE sector is serious about tackling the dramatic decline in part-time student numbers over recent years (Butcher, 2015).
The review found that in the bottom 10 cold spot areas POLAR3 classification for OU students was predominantly within quintiles one or two and in the top 10 hot spots, quintiles four and five. Drawing on literature around the challenges for disadvantaged students, including mature and part-time, the implications of this were subsequently explored through a case study of the industrial town of Corby in the East Midlands area of England
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Outreaching: two approaches to outreach with adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds (and an emerging evaluation toolkit)
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Managing knowledge: a community of practice and learning
Many workplaces have become characterized as learning organizations where knowledge workers provide the required competitive edge. Due to the dynamic changes in the economic structures, adaptive, generative, lifelong, and continuous learning have become norms. Leaders in the corporate world have a greater responsibility to provide direction in knowledge building and knowledge delivery systems. The key competencies required for leadership have been impacted by the change in corporate structures and the ever-changing formats that define competitive business landscapes. Traditional universities are also experiencing greater demand to provide the necessary skill sets required by individuals tasked with developing, incorporating, and communicating new knowledge. When it comes to learning models, the business focus on "continuous improvement" makes all the sense in the world.
It is in this spirit of continuous learning that this book was compiled. The seventh volume in the series Educational Innovation in Economics and Business contains a unique selection of articles addressing four major themes: (I) Designing New Education Models, (II) Preparing Students for Work in the Corporate Arena, (III) Using Technology to Enhance Learning Environments, and (IV) Methods to Maximize Student Learning. It is meant for educators in corporate training centers as well as for teachers in further and higher education
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Widening Participation to Higher Education for Adult Learners: The Past Matters
The study explores the concept of transformative learning within the context of widening participation (WP) to higher education (HE) for adult learners. It brings together the domains of adult education, lifelong learning, adult learning and widening participation. The research questioned the extent to which approaches to WP to HE effectively meet the needs of adult learners. Sub-questions explored how past educational experiences impact on adult learners and how the perceptions of adult learners could impact approaches to WP. Within the theoretical concept of transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1991) I adopted a qualitative, interpretative method of enquiry through semi-structured interviews within the case study of adult learners engaged in a WP programme. I use the theoretical frameworks of transformative learning theory and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1972; hooks, 1994) alongside models of learning adopted by Illeris (2017) and Jarvis (2006) to reflect on their applicability to the case study. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students who had engaged with preparatory and introductory HE courses. I was able to draw on my professional experience of embedding policy into practice to support adult learners into HE, recognising their distinct characteristics (McGivney, 1990; Stuart and Thomson, 1995; McGivney, 1996; Bamber and Tett, 2000), multiple identities (Waller, 2006; Butcher, 2015b; Mallman and Lee, 2016) and past experiences of education (Merrill, 2004; Askham, 2008; Goodchild, 2017). The main findings suggest that issues experienced as participants returned to learning were similar to those that they experienced during compulsory education, despite dedicated WP programmes. Findings suggest that pedagogical as well as dispositional, structural, institutional and situational barriers (Gorard, 2006) should be considered when supporting adult learners in and through their HE learning journey. In addition, the discourse around WP aimed at school children could reflect the concept of ‘lifelong participation’, whereby individual aspirations are positioned equally alongside those of WP practitioners
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Building and maintaining distributed communities of practice: knowledge management in the OUBS MBA
Building and maintaining "distributed communities of practice" is at the heart of B823 Managing Knowledge, a second-stage elective added to the Open University Business School (OUBS) MBA in October 1999. The course content reflects the expertise of its multidisciplinary development team headed by Paul Quintas, the first professor of knowledge management in the UK. In B823, technologies that support knowledge strategies are examined along current best practice in knowledge management. A key feature of the course is the use of established and state-of-the-art knowledge technologies in creating the distance learning environment
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How does a STEM Access module prepare adult learners to succeed in undergraduate science?
This article explores the impact of a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Access module on the progression of students to undergraduate Science. Drawing on the Widening Participation (WP) literature, this research investigated the experience of adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds taking their first steps into higher education (HE). A mixed methods institutional case study was conducted, drawing on extensive survey data and interviews with students and tutors. Key findings included: enhanced student understanding of how to use tutor support; improvement in the skills and confidence of students in relation to maths, as a result of an embedded interdisciplinary curriculum; and an uplift in student study skills. This study was undertaken in a distance learning context, addressing issues in entry-level STEM, but the conclusions are applicable to other HE settings
Measuring the quality of managerial learning on the job
This article reports on the results from a study which examined the relationship between the increasing use of various forms of 'flexible employment contracts' and the incidence of product and process innovations. One body of literature on product and process innovation suggests that it is dependent on attracting, building and nurturing key capabilities. Part of this argument is that employees will be prepared to contribute discretionary effort and to carry the risks involved in innovations only if they have a sense of security in their employment. Innovation, it has been suggested, is 'path dependent' - that is, it emerges from prior experimentation and learning. This thesis might reasonably be regarded as akin to the high commitment end of the human resource management spectrum. Thus, in the face of two decades or more of outsourcing, an increased use of temporary contracts and of part-time working, questions arise about the consequences of such departures from the secure employment contract for the achievement of product and process innovations. Two complementary research methods were used in this research project: first, a postal survey of 2,700 companies using random sampling methods, followed by eight case studies carefully selected using theoretical sampling. The case studies were designed to help unpack some of the main findings from the overall survey. The survey results suggested that there was some evidence to support the view that secure employment and high commitment management are important for innovation but further analysis found that the linkages between types of employment contracting and innovation were rather more complicated in practice. To a large degree, flexible working was found to be a consequence rather than a driver of innovation