Engaging and empowering first-year students through curriculum design: perspectives from the literature

There is an increasing value being placed on engaging and empowering first-year students and first-year curriculum design is a key driver and opportunity to ensure early enculturation into successful learning at university. This paper summarises the literature on first-year curriculum design linked to student engagement and empowerment. We present conceptualisations of ‘curriculum’ and examples from first-year curriculum design. We also note the limited literature where students have been involved in designing first-year curricula. The results of the literature review suggest that key characteristics of engaging first-year curricula include active learning, timely feedback, relevance and challenge. The literature also points to the importance of identifying students' abilities on entry to university as well as being clear about desired graduate attributes and developmental goals. Acknowledging realities and constraints, we present a framework for the first-year curriculum design process based on the literature

Science lives: School choices and ‘natural tendencies’

An analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews with university-based scientists and non-scientists illustrates their life journeys towards, or away from, science and the strengths and impact of life occurrences leading them to choose science or non-science professions. We have adopted narrative approaches and used Mezirow's transformative learning theory framework. The areas of discussion from the result have stressed on three main categories that include ‘smooth transition’, ‘incremental wavering transition' and ‘transformative transition’. The article concludes by discussing the key influences that shaped initial attitudes and direction in these people through natural inclination, environmental inspirations and perceptions of science

The transformative potential of international service-learning at a university with a Christian foundation in the UK

This article draws upon the findings of a study at Liverpool Hope University (LHU) into the transformative nature of International Service-Learning (ISL) experiences for student participants. This research is concerned with the implications of these findings for professional practice, in particular how ISL is constructed in Higher Education policy and practice. Recognising the problematic nature of this endeavor, this article responds to a call for discussion around pedagogical approaches underpinning counter-cultural and critical service programmes aligned with the radical principles of the Catholic social teaching. This study is grounded in a holistic conceptualisation of transformative learning that demands looking beyond an epistemological process that involves shifts in worldview and habits of mind to an ontological process that accounts for changes to our being in the world. It investigated how LHU students describe their ongoing experience of ISL and explored the conditions for learning and the associated transformative processes and outcomes in this context. Data analysis involved phenomenological description, constant comparative thematic analysis followed by a critical, hermeneutical analysis. This article will explicate the themes of moral and spiritual learning that emerged as part of a broader framework. In particular, it was found that the development of authentic relationships between travelling companions, accompanying tutors and partners overseas is central to learning that is reciprocated and provides a model of the transformative process in this context. This article concludes that this presents a pedagogical approach grounded in social justice that enables ISL to reach its transformative potential

Appreciative inquiry as a method of transforming identity and power in Pakistani women

This paper describes a three-year action research project that used Appreciative Inquiry to work with marginalised Pakistani women living in Sheffield. The research encountered many of the difficulties and dilemmas that have been previously identified in the theory and practice of Appreciative Inquiry. However, it also empowered the participants to develop critical thinking, particularly around issues of power and identity. Through generating authentic and untold stories, Appreciative Inquiry enabled participants to discuss, subvert and challenge the identities that had been constructed for them by sources of power within their community and culture. The paper describes the innovative application of Appreciative Inquiry, offers a theoretical response to criticisms of Appreciative Inquiry and suggests how it may be effective in enabling marginalised people to critically address issues of powe

“Making a difference” – Medical students’ opportunities for transformational change in health care and learning through quality improvement projects

Background Quality improvement is increasingly becoming an essential aspect of the medical curriculum, with the intention of improving the health care system to provide better health care. The aim of this study was to explore undergraduate medical students’ experiences of their involvement in quality improvement projects during a district health rotation. Methods Student group reports from rotations in learning centres of the University of Pretoria in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa were analysed for the period 2012 to 2015. Interviews were conducted with health care providers at four learning centres in 2013. Results Three main themes were identified: (1) ‘Situated learning’, describing students’ exposure to the discrepancies between ideal and reality in a real-life situation and how they learned to deal with complex situations, individually and as student group; (2) ‘Facing dilemmas’, describing how students were challenged about the non-ideal reality; (3) ‘Making a difference’, describing the impact of the students’ projects, with greater understanding of themselves and others through working in teams but also making a change in the health care system. Conclusion Quality improvement projects can provide an opportunity for both the transformation of health care and for transformative learning, with individual and ‘collective’ self-authorship

What difference does it make? Findings of an impact study of service user and carer involvement on social work students’ subsequent practice

This paper reports on a study which followed up a group of social work students to explore whether service user involvement in their education made any difference to their practice and whether there were different models or types of involvement which had a more significant impact than others. The findings showed that the impact was individual to each student. It was often specific encounters or ‘light bulb moments’ which led to increased awareness or insight into their own practice particularly when encountering similar situations or when pressures of practice led to them losing sight of service user perspectives. The paper shares these findings and considers the learning for educators in developing models of involvement which enhance impact on subsequent practice

Transient, unsettling and creative space: Experiences of liminality through the accounts of Chinese students on a UK-based MBA

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ The Author(s) 2009.This article explores the experiences of liminality through the accounts of Chinese students on a UK-based MBA programme. The transient nature of the MBA experience, as well as the international status of the Chinese student, is resonant with conceptualizations of liminality as ‘in between’ space. Based on semi-structured interviews with 20 MBA graduates who had subsequently returned to China with their qualification, we explored their perceptions of outcomes from the course and their experiences as international students on a programme imbued with western norms and values. Results support the unsettling yet creative implications of liminality, as well as the fragmented insecure nature of identities, as individuals pass through the MBA ‘rite of passage’ in terms of ‘becoming’ a manager and entering a new phase of career. Accounts suggest the creation of hierarchical structures within liminal space whereby Chinese students, through their positioning at the margin, have uncomfortable yet illuminating encounters with alterity. At the same time, they experience levels of ambiguity and uncertainty in the post-liminal phase of China-located employments, as new western-based managerial identities collide with dominant discourses of Chinese organization

Industrial work placement in higher education: a study of civil engineering student engagement

For civil engineering undergraduates, the opportunity to spend a period of time in formal industrial work placement provides an invaluable learning experience. This paper reviews student engagement with short-term industrial placement and provides analysis of questionnaires (n=174) returned by undergraduates studying civil engineering at four Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s) in the West of Scotland. The data captures industrial placement statistics, employability skill-sets and presents brief testimonies from students. Whilst the journey to becoming a professional civil engineer is undoubtedly enhanced by short-term placement clear opportunities exist for HEI’s to affect and change existing pedagogical discourse. Commentary is likely to resonate beyond civil engineering and serve as a timely reminder of the need to re-invigorate academia / industry curriculum partnerships

The reflective learning continuum: reflecting on reflection

The importance of reflection to marketing educators is increasingly recognized. However, there is a lack of empirical research which considers reflection within the context of both the marketing and general business education literature. This paper describes the use of an instrument which can be used to measure four identified levels of a reflection hierarchy: habitual action, understanding, reflection and intensive reflection and two conditions for reflection: instructor to student interaction and student to student interaction. Further we demonstrate the importance of reflective learning in predicting graduates’ perception of program quality. Although the focus was on assessment of MBA level curricula, the findings have great importance to marketing education and educators

Managing affect in learners' questions in undergraduate science

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Society for Research into Higher Education.This article aims to position students' classroom questioning within the literature surrounding affect and its impact on learning. The article consists of two main sections. First, the act of questioning is discussed in order to highlight how affect shapes the process of questioning, and a four-part genesis to question-asking that we call CARE is described: the construction, asking, reception and evaluation of a learner's question. This work is contextualised through studies in science education and through our work with university students in undergraduate chemistry, although conducted in the firm belief that it has more general application. The second section focuses on teaching strategies to encourage and manage learners' questions, based here upon the conviction that university students in this case learn through questioning, and that an inquiry-based environment promotes better learning than a simple ‘transmission’ setting. Seven teaching strategies developed from the authors' work are described, where university teachers ‘scaffold’ learning through supporting learners' questions, and working with these to structure and organise the content and the shape of their teaching. The article concludes with a summary of the main issues, highlighting the impact of the affective dimension of learning through questioning, and a discussion of the implications for future research