Session 105-CI. Wednesday 11 July, 3-4pm
A National Approach to Quality Enhancement of the
First-Year Experience:
Scotland as a Case Study
Professor Ronald Piper, University of St Andrews
Professor George Gordon, University of Strathclyde
Contact Details
Presenters:
Professor Ronald A. Piper, University of St Andrews
[email protected]
Professor George Gordon, University of Strathclyde
[email protected]
Project:
www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/themes/FirstYear
or, Dr Christine Macpherson ([email protected])
Five-year
programme
of2007
Enhancement
Themes
2008
2009
2005
2006
SHEEC – July 2005 - 2010
Employability
Flexible Delivery
Integrative Assessment
The First Year
Research-Teaching
Inclusive Curriculum
Progression and Success
Effective Learner -tbc
2010
The Context
Sector-wide Enhancement Theme on the First
Year involving 21 Higher Education Institutions
Started
November 2005 with Scoping Work
Projects Commissioned Summer 2006
Projects’ Completion due Summer 2007
Dissemination Programme to March 2008
Why an interest in the First Year?
Retention?
The
challenges & opportunities of four-year degrees?
The
challenges of mass higher education and student
preparation for university-level studies?
All
transitions potentially difficult?
The Theme’s Target
All students vs high-risk students
While the diversity of entrants, widening access and
retention may form the context and local drivers for
change, the focus is broader.
The Theme’s Target
Fundamental Questions
What
do we (the institution, the subject discipline)
want students to get out of the first year?
Given
potentially different student expectations of the
first year, how can we align our expectations and
student expectations so as to achieve our goals?
The Theme’s Target
Major Sub-Themes
of the Sector-wide Approach

Engagement

Empowerment
The Theme’s Target
Two Networks
for the First Year Theme
Institutional
Network
contacts and PVCs
of Practitioners (e.g., first-year
coordinators, student support staff)
The Theme’s Projects
Two Kinds of Projects
for the First Year
Those
promoting institutional & cross-institutional
discussions (Projects 1 and 2)
Specific
‘practice-focused’ projects (Projects 3 – 9)
First Year Enhancement Theme
Project 1 The Nature and Purposes of the First
Year
Project Leader Professor George Gordon
Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement,
University of Strathclyde, Scotland
Focus
To support institutional and pan-institutional discussions
on the nature and purpose of the First Year with
particular reference to the engagement and
empowerment of students and to the status of first year
teaching.
Project commenced October 2006. Due to complete late
summer 2007.
Programme of work:
•drawn up the Higher Education Academy 2006 Literature Review
(Harvey, Drew et al)
•undertaken a selective search of interesting practices (particularly
in England, Australia, USA and Hong Kong)
•conducted dialogues with institutional contacts in each Scottish HEI
and visited nine institutions
•conducted dialogues with a sample (ten to date) of Higher
Education Academy Subject Centres
•produced two briefing papers and an Interim Report (available at
www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk)
•produce Final Report in July/August 2007
•likelihood of follow up activities October 2007-March 2008
Illustrations of Subject Centre initiatives:
•History arranged a seminar at Stirling in June 2007 on the
nature and purposes of the First Year
•materials from several centres (e.g. Engineering, GEES,
Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism) aimed at addressing the
development of key skills and supporting work on retention and
progression
•work in Information and Computing Science (ICS) on student
pre-entry experiences and expectations and ways of using that
information to guide understandings of course choice and
design of the First Year curriculum
•articles exploring learning to be a student and differences
between continuing and non-continuing students (Christie et al)
•supportive materials from ESCalate (Education) for student
teachers
Illustrations of Subject Centre initiatives - cont:
•a report (As Simple as ABC?) from the English Subject Centre
dealing with the transition for students of English Language A
Level going on to study English Language/Linguistics in Higher
Education
•audit tools on the First Year Experience and on Induction
developed by Bioscience
•GEES working with Geoscience at Aberdeen to support
enhancement of learning and teaching practice with particular
attention to assessment and to the first year experience
•amongst the endeavours by the Psychology SC are projects on a
student self-achievement record (LASER), peer mentoring in first
year, and programmes of tutorials to promote authorship skills
amongst Psychology students
From all of the inputs several meta-themes can tentatively be
identified, including:
•more co-ordinated, coherent induction
•heightened attention to student integration both to the institution
and their programme of study
•enhanced intra-semester monitoring of student progression and
engagement
•voluntary buddy/peer mentoring systems, often as a supplement
to personal tutoring
•steps to facilitate wider shared learning experience
•encouragement of other dimensions of learning such as
placements, internships, volunteering and informal/semi-formal
learning
From all of the inputs several meta-themes can tentatively be
identified, including: - cont
•promoting independent learning via PDP
•promoting wide-ranging, often localised, debates about the nature
and purposes of the First Year
•providing opportunities for students and staff to share perspectives
and to develop understandings and actions
•enhanced electronic communication, via student dedicated facilities
(my X)
•practical approaches to providing space in First Year, within
localised parameters, for students to sample subjects prior to later
specialisation
•various steps to engage students more actively in learning in
classes and programmes and provide regular, easily managed
opportunities for formative feedback by the use, for example, of
randomised computer-based tests, quizzes and assignments
Most, probably all, institutions in Scotland have established a panuniversity committee to deal with a bundle of First Year topics,
commonly transition and retention-related, although these are
progressively adopting a holistic interpretation of their remit.
The different disciplines are typically represented at the level of the
local macro-academic unit i.e. Faculty/College/School.
In a study of Internal Resource Allocation Models
Jarzabkowski (2002) concluded that the choice of model
adopted by an HEI was more a matter of culture, history
and perceived institutional fit than adoption of best
practice. Both dimensions are discernible in practice in
relation to the First Year in Scottish HEIs. There is
significant contextual influence (both at the institutional
level and within departments/schools) but also
illustrations of learning from elsewhere (adopting and
adapting).
The Status of First Year Teaching
The topic is on the agenda because there is a perception that First
Year Teaching is not accorded high status by some academics. In
part that becomes a subset of widely held views that teaching
attracts less recognition than research in British HEIs, in substantial
measure due to the potentially differential financial implications any
change to an RAE rating, whilst teaching income in Scotland is
primarily determined by student enrolments.
The consultations suggest that views range widely on this issue.
Some regret the passing of the tradition of Professors taking the
whole First Year class. Some believe strongly that it is better to use
staff skilled in teaching First Year and dedicated to making it a
motivating and enjoyable experience for the students. Many
shadings exists between these positions.
Three practical actions merit attention:
•in Art Schools/Colleges there appears to be a strong, widelyshared commitment to teaching
•at Abertay, in Computing, research-oriented Professors are
engaging in overseeing projects by teams of First Year students
•at Dundee, in Lifesciences, the First Year is perceived as a
Foundation Year for later specialisation. Dedicated teachers are
used as a means of promoting engagement, stability and continuity,
a strategy which has had benefits in terms of retention and
progression and which the individuals concerned find personally
rewarding (intrinsic motivation/reward)
Concluding remarks
In this presentation there is not time to provide detail of countless
initiatives and actions. These will be summarised in the Final
Report. A lot of interesting work is happening. Quite a lot is
available through publications and websites but that may only be the
tip of the iceberg. The work of this project suggests that much
more, unreported externally, is happening within institutions. One
challenge is to make that work more visible within and beyond the
institution concerned.
Practice-Focused Projects
Curriculum
Formative
Peer
Design for the First Year
& Diagnostic Assessment
Support in the First Year
Personal
Development Planning (PDP)
Practice-Focused Projects
Personalisation
Introducing
Transition
of the First Year
Scholarship Skills
into and during the First Year
Practice-Focused Projects
Design for the Projects
Literature
Case
Review
Studies
Workshop
Writing
up and dissemination events
Other Initiatives and Resources

The Higher Education Academy: Survey of the
First Year Literature Review

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre Projects

Second European Conference on the First Year
Experience