Learning from Experience: The Expectations and Experiences of First Year Undergraduate Psychology St

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Learning from Experience The Expectations and
Experiences of First Year Undergraduate
Psychology Students

• Dr. Martin Rowley and Professor. James Hartley,
  Keele University
• Dr. Derek Larkin, Edge Hill University
• Journal of Further and Higher Education (In
  Press)

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Learning from Experience

• Over view
• Single-honours psychology students at a Russell
  group university were asked about their
  expectations and experiences of university at the
  start and end of their first year.
• Background
• Previous research suggests that students find
  the their first year a time of substantial
  adjustment, in which they need to negotiate the
  mass experience and depersonalization of
  university. During their initial experience of
  university they are a great risk of withdrawing
  from their studies (Harvey, Drew and Smith
  (2006).

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Learning from Experience

• Background
• Much of the research has sought to identify
  factors that affect student attrition
  homesickness, debt are among the mountain of
  reasons.
• Yorke and Longden (2004) Harisson (2006) have
  suggested that one major fact for student
  attrition is whether the course lives up to
  expectations.
• This mismatch between expectations and actual
  experiences can lead to disengagement and
  withdrawal from the course.

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Learning from Experience

• Background
• It has been suggested that pre-university
  experiences, can lead to this mismatch. Cook and
  Leckey (1999) report that academic expectations
  formed at school or college based on small
  tutor groups, close contact with teaching staff,
  and frequent and prescriptive feedback are not
  replicated at university, thus may lead to a
  disparity between expectations and reality.

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Learning from Experience

• Background
• Academic preparedness is particularly relevant
  for those involved in teaching psychology at
  degree level. Currently an A-level in psychology
  is not a prerequisite for undertaking a degree in
  the subject. As such a proportion of the student
  intake may not have experience of academic
  psychology.
• Even among those with A-level psychology it is
  sometimes difficult to gauge how prepared they
  are for their degree, given the different ways in
  which psychology it taught at A-level (Green,
  2007).

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Learning from Experience

• Jarvis (2003) suggests that because it is unknown
  how many of those teaching A-level psychology
  have a background in the topic, there may be
  inconsistencies in how it is taught.

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Learning from Experience

• Present study
• We focused on the expectations and experiences of
  psychology students at a pre-92 university
  comparing students with and without academic
  experience of psychology.
• We examined to what extent their initial
  expectations of university were met over the
  first year of study.

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Learning from Experience

• We examined 4 aspects of their academic
  expectations and experiences
• Preparedness for study
• Generic study
• Psychology study issues
• Personal goals and worries

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Learning from Experience

• Method
• 169 single honours students from a Russell group
  University took part in this study 147 females,
  M 19, Range 18-22. Entry qualifications
  minimum of three A-levels (AAB). 132 (78) had a
  A-level in psychology, 37 (22) had no prior
  experience of academic psychology.
• The students were drawn from a pool of 205
  students of which 24 failed to complete both
  stages of the study, 7 mature students were
  excluded as were 5 others who had atypical
  pre-university qualifications Access and
  International Baccalaureate.

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Learning from Experience

• Materials
• Stage 1 (administered week 3)
• Questionnaire with 13 statements-
• I expect to have no problems organizing my own
  workload.
• 1-Strongly Agree 6-Strongly disagree
• Students also responded to 2 further questions
• Identify any aspects of the transition to degree
  level study that they expected to find difficult.
• Describe any worries they might have about their
  psychology course.

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Learning from Experience

• Materials
• Stage 2 (administered final teaching week)
• Questionnaire with 13 statements- Adjusted for
  past tense
• I have had no problem organizing my own workload.
• 1-Strongly Agree 6-Strongly disagree
• Students also responded to 2 further questions
• Identify what further guidance would be useful to
  them in their studies
• Those with A level psychology Did the A level
  psychology prepare you for research methods and
  statistics.

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Learning from Experience

• Results
• Two-way mixed ANOVA Between subjects factor was
  qualification (A-level, Non A-level) and time of
  responding was the repeated measures (stage 1 vs.
  stage 2), for each statement.
• Preparedness
• Students felt well prepared at stage 1, but by
  stage 2 they were less sure .
• Stage 1 vs. Stage 2
• F (1,167) 7.32, p lt.01. ?p2 .042 (stage 1,M
  4.40, stage 2, M 4.07).

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Learning from Experience

• Results
• However, at both stages those with A-level
  psychology felt better prepared than those
  without this qualification.
• F (1,167) 25.37, p lt .001. ?p2 .092
• Those with A-level psychology were also more
  likely to agree their A-level course gave them a
  good grounding for their degree than those
  without the A-level.
• F (1,167) 27.12, p lt .001. ?p2 .14

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Learning from Experience

• Results
• At stage 2 those with A-level psychology had
  apparently a less clear idea of what psychology
  was, than when they started (stage 1-97, - stage
  2-85.6) whereas those without a psychology
  A-level were more likely to state that by stage 2
  they had a better idea of what psychology was
  (stage 1-70.3 - stage 2-89.2).
• Generic issues
• At the start of their course students felt they
  would have no problems organising their work load
  however, by the end of their first year they were
  less likely to report having no problems.
• F (1,167) 4.08, p lt .05. ?p2 .024 (stage 1,
  M 3.94, stage 2 M 3.69)

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Learning from Experience

• Responses to the question asking them to report
  any worries concerning their course, suggest that
  some concerns were heightened by stage 2, with a
  greater number of comments relating to workload,
  than at stage 1
• I need to organise my time a little better,
  especially in the approach to exams (P50. Stage
  2)
• The workload is much more than I expected and
  its rather difficult to meet a number of
  deadlines (P179. Stage 2)
• I am slightly worried that going into the second
  and third year will be a lot more difficult and
  more work (P 88. stage 2)

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Learning from Experience

• In comparison to the worries regarding workload
  students reported that despite initially being
  aware of the need to read, by stage 2 they
  reported having not read as much as they had
  planned.
• F (1,167) 280.45, p lt .001. ?p2 .63 (stage 1,
  M 5.59, stage 2 M 3.26).
• Im worried about the amount of material to
  revise for the exams not having done much of the
  reading set by lecturers (P142. Stage 2).
• I havent done much reading (P71. Stage 2)

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Learning from Experience

• These finding are consistent with previous
  research (Yorke Longden, 2007 Stokes and
  Martin, 2008).
• Good news is that non A-level psychology students
  reported carrying out more reading than those
  with previous experience of psychology.
• F (1,167) 7.07, p lt .01. ?p2 .04
• It might be those without previous experience of
  psychology need to read just to keep up.

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Learning from Experience

• Those with a pre-university qualification in
  psychology may have felt that the first year was
  just going over old ground, and that additional
  reading was not required.
• the going over of things done at A level made
  psychology extremely boring and repetitive.
  (P49. Stage 2).
• if anything not enough difference so far, a lot
  of A level work had been repeated this year.
  (P94. Stage 2)

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Learning from Experience

• At stage 1 students acknowledged they would have
  limited contact with teaching staff (95).
  However, by stage 2 many students reported being
  surprised by how little contact they actually had
  (61).
• This is reflected in some of the comments.
• the most difficult things was the massive
  decrease in help and guidanceplus not being
  pushed as much to do the work. (P192. Stage 2).
  
• lack of guidance and support, I feel like my
  work has no direction. (P176. Stage 2).

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Learning from Experience

• Specific psychology issues.
• At stage 1 students reported the expectation to
  learn information that will be of personal
  relevance to them, however, by stage 2 they
  reported this was less likely to happen.
• F (1,167) 31.51, p lt .001. ?p2 .16 (stage 1,
  M 4.58, stage 2 M 3.93).
• Year 1 students tend to believe that psychology
  is an exploration uncovering underling truths
  about human nature, by years 2 and 3 they tend to
  appreciate that psychology is characterised by
  multiple perspectives (Wallwork et al., 2006)

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Learning from Experience

• Our respondents commented on the emphasises in
  research methods and statistics suggesting that
  there was too much of it.
• Those with A-level psychology (132) were asked
  whether their A-level had prepared them for
  research methods and statistics. 46 stated they
  felt well prepared for research methods, and only
  28 were well prepared for statistics.
• My A-level course prepared me to a great
  extent (P26. Stage 2)
• Not at allthe stats tests at A-level were spoon
  fed to us rather than being explained (P58.
  Stage 2)

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Learning from Experience

• Students did however, have other concerns
  regarding the scientific nature of their course
  particularly the biological content of the
  course.
• This semester has been very biology based and
  not A-level biology has left me a little behind.
  (P127)
• I was not aware how much emphasis there would be
  on maths/biology and also on research (P143)

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Learning from Experience

• Personal goals and worries
• Many respondents cited concerns about writing
  skills, or whether they would be able to keep up
  with their studies, and achieve a good degree.
• Im worried about my essay skillsI feel that I
  am not up to scratch with the rest of my peers.
  (P14)
• Only just passing, I think I dont have a strong
  enough base for second and third year. (P43)
• Im worried that Ill fail my exams. (P158)

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Learning from Experience

• Discussion
• Student experience
• General concerns
• Specific concerns lab classes statistics
  scientific nature of psychology
• On going academic concerns

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Learning from Experience

• Those without A-level psychology felt
  disadvantaged at the start of their course, but
  by the end of year 1 they were equally confident.
  
• Those without A-level psychology reported reading
  more- were they trying to catch-up? Or do those
  with A-level psychology not have to work so hard
  going over old ground.
• Students expressed concern about the scientific
  nature of psychology A-level psychology How
  science works- does this disadvantage those
  without A-level psychology.

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Learning from Experience

• New approaches to the teaching of A-level
  psychology may mean removing the requirement for
  assessed course work, for many of our students
  this element was vital in the preparation for
  their degree course.
• In line with Yorke (2000) Yorke and Longden
  (2007) we found students reported a general lack
  of guidance problematic limited contact with
  staff.

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Learning from Experience

• A number of university offer summer schools or
  presenting school curriculum topics in a
  university setting (HEA, 2008).
• These practices may alert students to the
  realities of HE.
• Students report that although support was
  available many of the students failed to seek
  help is this a sign of disengagement ? FE
  specific help/support HE generic help/support.
  

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Learning from Experience

• Stokes and Martin (2008) report that students
  failed to make use of readings lists many
  students take an instrumental approach to reading
  recent study by Bell, Salzano, and Foster
  (2008) report that A level students read for 7
  hours a week, a similar amount to first year
  university students.

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Learning from Experience

• These last points raise much deeper questions
  about the nature of our education system and how
  it is perceived by students teachers lecturers
  administrators and policymakers.