Making Room for Writing and Reflection

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Making Room for Writing and Reflection

• Dr Pat Hill Dr Cath Ellis

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Overview

• Learning Development Strategy
• Module outline - what and why
• Examples of reflection

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We take it as a given that high quality study
support development maximizes student
achievement and promotes independent learning
(Blythman et al)
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Strategies

• Generic stand-alone workshops
• Targeted stand-alone workshops on particular
  topics for particular cohorts
• Partially embedded input where help is given
  within the course at an appropriate time
• Fully embedded where skills are developed as part
  of the curriculum and included in course design

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..........No Time!............
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• ...over time, efforts will have to change
  from working with individual students to working
  with teachers, courses, degree programmes and the
  whole institution, and that these efforts will
  need to be well conceptualised and backed up with
  convincing empirical evidence of impact
• Gibbs (2009)

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Why this module?

• It is a bottleneck module
• It is a second year module
• It is taught across all three main campuses
• It is seen as containing troublesome knowledge

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• The student is perforce required to venture into
  new places, strange places, anxiety-provoking
  places. This is the point of higher education. If
  there was no anxiety, it is difficult to believe
  that we could be in the presence of higher
  education. (Bartlett, 2007, p147)

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Threshold Concepts

• 1. Transformative ontological as well as
  conceptual shift
• 2. Irreversible understood can be modified or
  rejected but not forgotten
• 3. Integrative exposes interrelatedness and
  allows connections to be made
• 4. Bounded has terminal frontiers, bordering
  with thresholds into new conceptual areas (Meyer
  Land, 2006)
• 5. Troublesome Knowledge counter-intuitive,
  alien or seemingly incoherent. (adapted from
  Cousin, 2006)

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Troublesome knowledge challenge, uncertainty
and difficulty

• one of the main problems was the worry of being
  wrong
• found myself battling with ideas that were on the
  surface very convoluted
• each theory seemed to go beyond me ...reading
  extremely heavy and complicated
• feel a bit overwhelmed as I believe this course
  sounds very complicated
• had previously floundered around ideology,
  clutching at tiny straws of basic understanding
• could not just grasp the concepts without much
  work
• have found the subject matter challenging
• was put off by what seemed to be difficult topics
  to grasp
• this module has been a constant challenge
• hesitancy at my own capability for grasping an
  understanding
• was particularly annoyed by ideas that presented
  a conflict to my own understanding
• absolute answers based on common sense to a
  question became a challenge
• The course was at times difficult, but perhaps
  that is because we dont like to face up to the
  truth

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Teaching strategies Hybrid Learning
Strategies

• by watching online lectures, reading set texts
  and engaging in thought provoking seminar
  discussions I have moved on
• never would have managed without the online
  lectures they were a life saver the ability to
  pause and go back was great
• prefer face to face but as its the online
  lectures and the workshops or just lectures I
  would definitely choose the workshops
• had to watch the lecture twice to fully
  understand
• Combination of personal online lecture and group
  discussion worked well
• different learning and reflection techniques...
  have all made this module an interesting and
  engaging one
• was sceptical about the blog ...the week of the
  groups presentation was a highlight in my
  journal
• benefitted from the open discussions
• taking on board different opinions of the topic
  allows you to engage
• portfolio assignment ...rather
  daunting...soon became a project that I found
  to be incredibly valuable
• we were made to really think about things for
  ourselves rather than having the facts dictated
  to us

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Transferring skills developing tools

• writing the first essay highlighted the
  importance of understanding theory to further
  ones reading of, well, everything
• in the future, when experiencing something which
  I cannot get to grips with I will use this visual
  learning style
• given me strong tools that I can work with
  academically and others beyond the life of
  university
• something I can see spilling over into other
  assignments ...made me evaluate the work and
  consider my own learning
• learnt a lot from myself about the way I learn
  and the skills I possess and lack
• has developed my critical thinking skills ..the
  ability to apply theory to literary text and
  everyday living
• using this technique I was able to write better
  essays in other subjects
• could apply this learning technique to other
  academic learning situations
• time keeping and study discipline has improved
  this year because of the strictness of ICCT
• more use of the library ...has resulted in more
  productive work in some assignments this year

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Transferring knowledge making connections

• began to see a pattern emerging between the
  theories
• allowing the theories to question my pre-existing
  ideas, I have built up solid counter-arguments
  ... as well as understood them better
• became aware of how some of the theories
  interlinked with one another to give their
  meaning
• as soon as I could see how it was comparable to
  another theory, this stumbling block eventually
  became easier to overcome
• was a concept that I could see within the society
  in which we live
• fascinating to see how the theories that Id
  listened to during lectures do indeed have a real
  physical effect upon the world in which we live

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Transformation- life changing

• so with my new perspective on life and an eager
  eye for spotting discrimination and prejudices in
  the world around me I leave ICCT with new
  learning methods, a better personal outlook on
  life and people and an addiction to headache
  relief
• have broadened my mind and shed many prejudices,
  some of which I didnt realise I had
• gained significantly in my understanding of why I
  felt how I did
• despite the difficulty I unfortunately
  experienced I am much more aware of reasons
  behind the things I see around me
• course has changed my point of view in my life
• has made me investigate things I never would have
  bothered with before, read books I never would
  have chosen, write words I never knew existed,
  explore ideas and theories which stimulated new
  thoughts
• opened my eyes to the world around me, making me
  question everything that I have always accepted
  as truth
• made me question, what if we hadnt been taught
  that at all?
• gained the tools to consider the world in a new
  and vastly different way
• feel that I am more aware and awake to what is
  going on around me
• the veil has been lifted and I am beginning to
  see the world in all its hideous glory

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References

• Allan, J., Clarke, K. (2007) Nurturing
  Supportive Learning Environments in higher
  Education Through the Teaching of Study Skills
  To embed or Not to Embed International Journal
  of Teaching an Learning in Higher Education, Vol.
  19, no.1, pp64-46
• Barnett, R. (2007) A Will to Learn Being a
  Student in an Age of Uncertainty . Maidenhead
  McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press
• Biggs, J. Aligning teaching for constructing
  learning available from http//www.heacademy.ac.u
  k/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase
  /id477_aligning_teaching_for_constructing_learning
  .pdf Last accessed June 2010
• Blythman, M., Mullin, J., Milton, J., Orr, S.
  (2003) Implementation Issues for Study Support.
  In Bjork, L. A. ed. Teaching Academic Writing in
  European Higher Education. Secaucus, NJ Kluwer
  Academic Publishers, pp. 195-208.
• Cotterell, S. (2001) Teaching Study skills and
  Supporting Learning Basingstoke Palgrave
• Cousin, G. (2006) An introduction to threshold
  concepts Available from http//www.gees.ac.uk/pla
  net/p17/gc.pdf Last accessed June 2010
• Ellis, Cath (2008) You Cant Do That in a
  Classroom! How Distributed Learning Can Assist
  in the Widespread Adoption of Hybrid Learning
  Strategies. In International Conference on
  Hybrid Learning 2008 (ICHL 2008), 13th - 15th
  August 2008, Hong Kong. (Unpublished)
• Gibbs, G. (2009) Developing Students as learners
  varied phenomena, varied contexts and a
  developmental trajectory for the whole endeavour
  Journal of Learning Development in Higher
  Education Issue 1 February.
• Haggis, T. (2006). Pedagogies for diversity
  retaining critical challenge amidst fears of
  'dumbing down'. Studies in Higher Education,
  Vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 521-535.
• Hill, P. (2008) Making writing invisible A
  Study into the Complexities of Standard Written
  English Acquisition in Higher Education
  (Unpublished thesis)
• Meyer, J.H.F and Land, R. (2005) Threshold
  concepts and troublesome knowledge (2)
  Epistemological considerations and a conceptual
  framework for teaching and learning Higher
  Education 49373-388
• Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with 'study
  skills' Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 11,
  no. 4, pp. 457-469.