'I want to prove to myself that I can do this!': Risk and uncertainty in the construction of personal biographies for access students

This paper is a preliminary discussion of research findings from a PhD study that began within UWE’s Education Faculty in September 2001. It will seek to outline provisional thoughts as to how notions of risk and uncertainty are employed in the construction of personal biographies for (mature) students on an Access course. Extracts from interviews undertaken with the students will be used in an effort to ground the theory in personal experience. The fear of failing the course, thus reinforcing previous negative experiences of the education system and further damaging an already low self esteem, is paramount for some of the cohort. Others meanwhile express worries over how non academic issues including relationship or monetary pressures may jeopardise their chances of success

‘i don’t feel like ‘a student’, i feel like ‘me’!’: The over‐simplification of mature learners’ experience(s)

Many studies of mature students within further and higher education portray them as a distinct social category with particular shared characteristics. Such representations are sometimes sub‐divided further along lines of social division. For instance, attempts to determine ‘types’ of mature learners have variously identified class, ethnicity, gender and age as being of key importance. This paper examines the utility of such attempts to categorise older learners by drawing upon data from a longitudinal study of students on a further education ‘Access to HE’, and subsequent university courses. It demonstrates that mature students are a diverse and heterogeneous group, with the ‘reality’ of their experience(s) being too complex, too individually situated, for meaningful representation otherwise. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved

‘I really hated school, and couldn’t wait to get out!’: Reflections on ‘a wasted opportunity’ amongst access to HE students.

In constructing a narrative account of our lives, we may recall experiences of schooling with a mixture of resentment and regret, and perhaps a sense of ‘wasted opportunities’. This is particularly true if school has left us with a fragile academic self-esteem, through being labelled ‘a failure’ as a child. For some, this contributes to a desire to ‘make good’ the perceived deficit through re-engagement with formal education as an adult learner.This paper draws upon biographical data from longitudinal research that followed the progress of a group of mature students on a further education Access to Higher Education course. It explores how themes of ‘waste’ especially and ‘desire’ are used in accounting for past, present and (anticipated) future lives and learner identities. It concludes that, despite some commonalities, experiences of adult learners are too individual and personalised to be meaningfully categorised, as some early studies had attempted to do

Pelagic, Epibenthic, and Infaunal Invertebrates of Timbalier Bay and Offshore Environment

Paper by Richard S. Walle

Jason Waller: The Existence of God: A Simple Argument that Changed the Mind of a Long-time Atheist, with response by Dr. Richard Foley

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/humanitiescenter_transformations1213/1003/thumbnail.jp

Enhancing students’ information literacy skills:How to succeed at university in GEES disciplines

Welcome to this online resource which has been designed to help you to develop and enhance a range of skills and competencies related to the effective use of information within the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) disciplines. More specifically, the following sections will help you to:• consider the contrasting characteristics of different types of resources;• locate relevant resources quickly and easily;• critically read and appraise the quality of your resources;• organise and manage your information;• make effective use of your resources within your assignments.Making effective use of a broad range of information resources is central to success in all GEES degree programmes. With lectures and practical sessions commonly providing only the bare bones on a topic or focusing exclusively on specific issues, engaging more broadly with literature is essential to developing more comprehensive knowledge and understanding. More than this, engaging with a diverse range of sources frequently reveals a surprising amount of debate, disagreement and contradictory information that serves to illustrate both the plural and contested nature of our disciplines, and thus the nature of scientific progress. A familiarity with ongoing research debates and an ability to place your work within the context of previously- published research are particularly important within the independent research work that you will typically undertake during the latter stages of a GEES degree programme.As such, rather than simply acquiring and re-presenting information, your degree programme will require you to think independently, to critically assess the reliability of their sources and to evaluate the basis and relative strength of competing arguments. Although coping with the sheer quantity of contrasting information can seem daunting at first, with practice and developing confidence it can help to enliven the disciplines you’re studying, whilst equipping you with a suite of skills and abilities that will be of value for the rest of your life.<br/

Jason Waller: The Existence of God: A Simple Argument that Changed the Mind of a Long-time Atheist, with response by Dr. Richard Foley

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/humanitiescenter_transformations1213/1003/thumbnail.jp

Using online data for independent research:How to succeed at university in GEES disciplines

Independent research is an important and distinctive component of degree programmes within the GEES disciplines, most commonly encountered within final-year projects and dissertations. Successfully completing a large research project with relatively little support requires strong self-motivation, effective time management, problem-solving skills, writing and presentation skills, and a high degree of organisation. As such, it can be one of the most challenging and daunting elements of your degree programme.The ever-growing range of digital information, that is freely available at the click of button, is a fantastic resource that can be used to enhance your project. Online datasets and images can be used in conjunction with traditional field and laboratory-based methodologies. Alternatively, your project may revolve exclusively around the location, manipulation and analysis of secondary data. The successful use of online data for independent research is however associated with a number of challenges.This online resource has been designed to help you to identify and deal with many of the problems commonly encountered when using online data within the context of independent research. More specifically, the following sections will help you to:• locate relevant data;• determine whether it is fit for purpose and available for you to use; • present your data clearly and effectively

Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Practitioners are being placed under increasing pressure to evaluate the success of their outreach activities, both by government and by their own universities. Based in a reductionist doctrine of ‘evidence-based practice’, there is a desire to demonstrate the effectiveness and value-for-money across activities that now account for around £175 million per year across England. This article examines some of the difficulties in evaluating the complex social world of outreach and suggests a ‘small steps’ approach to overcome some of these. This uses the idea of a transformative ‘theory of change’ as a framework for understanding the particular contribution made by discrete activities within a wider portfolio, providing a more reliable form of inference than attempts to ‘prove’ impact over longer timeframes