NALN Student Support strand research project

1
NALN Student Support strand research project

• Celia Bishop
• Head of Study Support
• London College of Communication
• c.bishop_at_lcc.arts.ac.uk

2
The project

• Based on a continuing wicked issue in provision
  identified as a weakness in the audit exercise
• The perception of the role of writing and study
  support of FE course teams and curriculum
  managers
• The low uptake of FE provision by students

3
Interview process

• Study support tutor interviews Course Director
  (Further bonding being the hidden agenda)
• Head of Study Support interviews FE curriculum
  managers
• Interviews range from 11- 44 mins, most subject
  staffs views captured

4
Interview content

• Role of writing in the course
• Its relative (non) importance and why
• Strengths and weaknesses of student writing
• Which students have most difficulties
• Progression where to and what proportion
• Knowledge of writing requirements of future
  courses/employment
• What more can Study Support do?

5
Importance of writing

• Range from really important to Design 98 and
  writing 2 to Unfortunately, very,very low
• It is there to back up course work
• This is a practical course and so good written
  skills are not essential
• Secondary to other aspects of the course,
  certainly in FE
• In GD some facility with language, written and
  spoken, is important. Were dealing with a
  communication medium

6
A few inklings

• ..Very different from HE .I suppose it could
  be useful or important to prepare the guys who
  want to go on to HE courses
• .. For taking things on to the next stage.
• The aim of this course is to provide skills and
  progression opportunities important for those
  who might want to make job applications

7
Responsibility for writing skills

• its really the responsibility of the course
  they are going to to sort that out
• We need to explain in the subject matter what it
  is to do analysis, breaking down larger ideas
  into small concepts which are interrogated for
  their strengths and weaknesses

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Strengths weaknesses of student writing
Course teams

• Spelling and grammar
• Vocabulary,structure, sentences, paragraphs
• Literary ability is connected to their oral
  ability, many of them ESOL
• Not used to analytical writing and they have to
  be taught how to write using appropriate
  terminology
• They are not particularly interested in writing
• Strength ability to read handouts (IT
  instructions) CD surprised at low standards of
  writing It does stagger me actually

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Strengths weaknesses of student writing
curriculum managers

• Difficulty in expressing an idea in a coherent
  or even concise way find it difficult to express
  what they might find it easier to express
  visually. That includes doing it verbally as well
  not just about their language, but about
  confidence and prior experience.
• grounding their findings in evidence .. Avoiding
  hanging assertions I think that no
  evidence, no stats, no back up. They do not know
  what analysis or evaluation is

10
Students with the most difficulties

• ESOL
• Sometimes the second language students are
  better because they have learned grammar
• Students with learning difficulties
• Mature students/adult returners
• Those who have missed out on education
• Those from the less able end of the achievement
  range
• Students with dyslexia
• We go on about the international students who
  have this problem with the technical language of
  AD but actually it is all students, particularly
  those who dont have a brilliant education,
  perhaps with friends and parents who do not
  engage in going to galleries and things like
  that

11
Knowledge of writing requirements of courses
students progress on to

• My honest perception is that none of those
  courses have a formal entry requirement for a
  standard of writing (Concerned that if student
  writing is poor this damages the reputation of
  the College with potential employers)
• Writing is always secondary to the making of
  visual images but students need to understand
  that both are important, especially at MA level.
• Not a great deal .Expectations are not clear to
  students either in the prospectus .. Writing is
  rarely mentioned
• For those who go on to BA its a shock.. There
  is a deadline, an amount of words and its got to
  be done properly, in reasonable English, coherent
  and presents an argument

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What more can Study Support do

• Students should see it as an important part of
  the coursewe ought to be strict .. Make it less
  of a voluntary session more work for the
  students
• Help the students with the discipline of taking
  notes
• Maybe more support in the reading
• Be more visible in the studio, more involved at
  the beginning of projects
• The crucial bit, working together, because (it
  could) be stigmatised and seen as a remedial
  activity which it is not a little more joined
  at the hipness
• Its a structural matter. St S has got to get in
  to validations and ask questions about whether
  the curriculum needs to be designed this way. You
  see a huge variety of students and have a font of
  knowledge

13
Final words

• Its the dentist model you avoid them until
  the last minute and then when your teeth are
  falling out you run to the dentist
• Study Support spend a lot of their time managing
  a lot of problems which are problems of
  curriculum design, not solving the problem which
  is What do we need to equip our students to do?