Open Paper Session 2: Deepening student engagement, relationships and belonging
12th May 2023
Wednesday 14 June, 11.15-12.30, Online
Two Academic Exchanges (verbal presentations of 13-14 minutes, each followed by 6-7 minutes for questions) and three Lightning Presentations (verbal presentations of no more than 6 minutes, each followed by 4 minutes for questions).
This session will be chaired by Adam Hart, Professor of Science Communication and National Teaching Fellow.
Recording of the session
Academic Exchanges
i. An exploration of factors influencing undergraduate student engagement
Rick Millican, Tristan Middleton and Tyrone Perry-Harry (School of Education and Humanities) with Ohoud Abdalla, Jorja Bond and Luci Holmes (Students)
Concerns about student engagement on the BA Education and BA Education, Inclusion & SEN courses led the teaching team to seek funding from the University Teaching Fellowship (UTF) Scheme to conduct a small research project to begin to understand factors that might have a positive or negative impact on engagement. In an effort to gain more authentic voices and overcome any perceived power imbalances between researchers and respondents, and to help develop research skills, three members of the teaching team enlisted a student from each of Levels 4, 5 and 6 to create a co-researching team of six. The research took the form of an explorative case study and involved a short questionnaire that was sent out to the entire course cohort on three occasions across the academic year to ascertain if there was any variance in engagement as the year progressed. The questionnaires were followed by interviews designed to delve more deeply into the themes that emerged. Both sets of data were analysed and cross-checked collaboratively across the research team, leading to findings that provide insight into the factors that influence student engagement, which, as a team and University, we can seek to address.
ii. Exploring the relational landscape of students and personal tutors: can relational analytics help us understand ‘belongingness’?
Alex Masardo and Maria Meredith (School of Education and Humanities)
As we have returned to face-to-face teaching in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we have found with our cohorts that student engagement has been variable (attendance, motivation and completion of directed tasks), as have the ways we have sought to improve them. Transition into higher education is an important time to consider with regards to the development of competencies in order to provide learners with the ‘capital’ they require for their personal and professional careers. There is as much transcultural relevance here for international students as there is for home students. In this presentation, we report on a recent project that examines how Level 4 students and personal tutors view the relationships that they have with each other at university and the effect this has on how comfortable students feel learning in university – their belongingness. Drawing on a relational proximity measure developed for schools but adapted for the first time to the higher education context, we explore how relational ties might be developed within Level 4, and whether this could make a difference to the relational landscape and students’ sense of belongingness in university. We end by asking whether relational analytics could potentially be scaled up across the University of Gloucestershire as a means by which to complement existing Jisc Learning Analytics.
Lightning Presentations
iii. Navigating the unknown: Exploring first in family males’ sense of belonging during their transition into university
Alison King (School of Education and Humanities)
Research has shown that for first in family students the option of higher education is not an easy one, and experiences once at university have highlighted their feelings of ‘Otherness’ (Janke et al., 2017). Under-representation of working-class males from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education follows a trajectory of problematic educational experiences from early childhood, in which the relationship with educational success and working-class identity is a negative one (Ingram, 2009). This presentation will document the progress of my Masters Research on first in family males’ sense of belonging during their transition into university. Within my research I will be using focus groups to facilitate discourses of first in family males who have seen a benefit in attending university, but for whom higher education is not necessarily an automatic step. My research is pertinent at a time when student belonging and retention are high on the political agenda, and it is hoped that the findings gained from my research will help to inform evidence-based approaches for engagement, involvement, and support within the context of the University of Gloucestershire.
iv. Co-creating conversations around inclusion in the curriculum
Jo Godley (School of Health and Social Care), Clare Peterson and Lisa Brinicombe (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team) with Monique ben-Carew (Student)
Whilst preparing a first run of the integrated Treatment and Rehabilitation module for the Pre-Reg MSc Physiotherapy programme, we co-created a workshop designed to help students consider their unconscious biases, privilege and wider awareness of issues around equity, inclusion and diversity. The workshop was linked to the learning outcome of accommodating ‘individuals with multi-pathology, psychological and emotional issues, learning disabilities and other individual differences’.
Supporting our only student of mixed-race in the group to prepare for the session, we collaborated with her to produce a real-life case study for the group to tackle. Another case was also presented to look at issues for transgender people. We wanted to highlight unconscious bias in particular, as we believe this will enable students to influence decolonisation and promote equality and diversity principles in their future organisations. We did this by ensuring the session was highly interactive, including pre-tasks of listening to a Brené Brown podcast, completion of the Harvard Implicit Association Test, and listening to a TED talk by Valerie Alexander during the session.
Outcomes from the session have been observed in the way students have modified their language to avoid assumptions, e.g. about the gender of someone’s partner in a case study, and Monique has subsequently highlighted further resources to tackle microaggressions. These were sent out to students across the subject area with a challenge to ask about implementation of the CSP campaign whilst on placement.
We conclude that opportunities for inclusivity are hidden in our module learning outcomes, waiting to be extrapolated. Recognising our unconscious biases will enable us to use any privilege we have to create positive change in our work-places. We can collaborate with our student body to make sessions meaningful and we should go further in working with people with other protected characteristics.
v. Better supporting students with DSA whilst on placement: learning through partnership
Sian Deasy (Yeovil College University Centre) and Becki Albrighton (School of Health and Social Care)
This presentation explores the work undertaken at Yeovil College University Centre to better support students with Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) whilst on placement through the co-creation of a reasonable adjustments recommendation plan, and how this model was then adapted and implemented by colleagues from the University of Gloucestershire. This presentation considers good practice in supporting learners with DSA whilst on placement, as well as the many challenges experienced on the ground when attempting to design and embed systems across teams and organisations. Beyond this, undertaking this piece of work has exposed the fruitful learning that can come from unconventional lines of collaboration, and prompted consideration of how we better create spaces for shared thinking and learning for colleagues across disciplines, levels, and partners.