Increasing Engagement Through Structured Tutorials Mike Groves

Outline The problem The theory The “solution” The data The next steps

Background- BIA Pathways Over 200 students IELTS scores from 5.5 to 9 Target degrees Engineering, Business, Medicine, Law inter alia Crowded curriculum Slight marginalisation 4,6 and 10 hours per week. Tutorial every second week.

The Problem Some students lacking motivation and achievement Language Other skills Lack of development in terms ability to function effectively in a new academic environment

What causes this? Culture shock Teenageriness Lack of confidence Over confidence Peer pressure Exhaustion Too much English? (Speculation & Experience, 2017)

Experience tells me The problem with engagement activities…

Theoretical Background Dornyei Dweck Fanghanel Holliday

Dornyei and Ideal L2 self motivation system Ideal L2 Self “If the learner has a desired future image Which is elaborate and vivid Which is perceived as plausible and harmony with…the expectations of the learners family Which is accompanied by relevant and effective procedural strategies Which also contains elaborate information about the negative consequences” (Dornyei,2009, p.27 My Bullets)

Dweck and The Mindset Fixed vs growth mindsets Entity vs incremental That intellectual ability is a skill that needs to be nurtured. The motivational difference between telling a student they are smart, and they worked hard. (Dweck and Master, 2009)

Different perspectives on teaching in HE Educational ideology in relation to teaching Ideological perspective Traditionalist/Liberal Learning for its own sake. Advancing knowledge through intellectual enquiry Vocationalist Human capital. Establishing link between education and the needs of the economy Progressive/ Emancipatory Personal choice and growth Social Constructionist/Critical HE is a vehicle to transform society. . (Fanghanel, 2009)

The nature of the space, “Culture of dealing” Multiple related background influences Multiple related background influences Tourist Culture Tourist trading culture Interaction “Interculture”- (Holliday, Hyde and Kulman, 2010) Holliday, Hyde and Kullman, 2010

The nature of the space “Anglo” culture Home Culture Freedom Responsibility Norms Expectations Home Culture Freedom Responsibility Norms Expectations Educational Culture Discipline Criticality Approach Educational Culture Discipline Criticality Approach Foundation

In summary The need for a vision of self The need to encourage growth The need for personal choice The need to define the space from all sides So, how?

Aims of the Guided Tutorials To encourage students to develop an understanding of themselves as learners To help students transition into independent and effective learners To encourage students to reflect on areas where they need to develop To encourage students to gain an insight into what is expected of them.

Format Each week, a reading text (around 1000 words) Reflective task Discussion

Plan   TERM ONE TERM TWO 1 First Tutorial- Skills Audit Goal Setting 2 Term 1 Assessment feedback 3 Time Management 4 Vocabulary building 5 Reading and researching 6 Dealing with difference/Culture Shock 7 Mid Term Feedback 8 Essay Planning Final Tutorial 9 Critical Thinking 10 Essay drafts 11 Assessment

Sample text (Vocabulary) Being strategic It is important to have a strategy for improving your vocabulary. This will generally have three strands. Firstly, you need to identify the language that you know, or only partially know. Then you have to work out a way of recording it. Finally, you need to recycle it. This means using the new words so that they become part of your active vocabulary. Below are two students and the strategies that they use. Student A is a fairly competent user of English. She has a large vocabulary, but some of the more formal words are less familiar to her. She uses the following strategy to improve her vocabulary. She takes an article or a web page form her subject and runs it through lextutor (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/). She checks the words that are more academic (from the Academic Word List or AWL) and records any she doesn't feel 100% familiar with. Then she uses a word cloud (http://www.wordclouds.com/) to see the most common words. She also records any she is unfamiliar with in a notebook. Whenever she writes something, she tries to use the words in the notebook, ticking them when she does so. Student B is less confident with English. He knows that there is a large number of words that he needs to become more familiar with. Therefore, he carries a notebook with him, and every time he sees a word he is not sure of, he writes it down. Then, once a day, he transfers these words onto small index cards with their meanings and other information from the Oxford learners Dictionary: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/. He then carries these cards around with him, and tests himself regularly. When he is sure he is familiar with a word, he puts it in a box. Once a week, he also goes through this box to make sure he remembers.

Sample Task Reflection How would you describe your vocabulary? How often do you see words you don’t know? Do you know all the parts of speech of words? Do you know a lot of high level, sophisticated words? How deep is your knowledge of subject specific vocabulary? What have you done in the past to improve your vocabulary? Read the section in the student guide about improving your vocabulary. Strategies   Here are a number of strategies Have two notebooks. Carry one around with you. When you see an important new word, record it. Then, every evening, transfer this into the other book you keep at home. Look up the word, and record lots of information about it. Write the new words on index cards, which you carry round with you. Test yourself regularly. Set up a personal section on Memorise or Quizlet. Invite a friend to join. Turn it into a game. Create word clouds from electronic articles to see the commonly used vocabulary in your area. Use your recorded vocabulary when you are writing.

Questionnaire 7 multi item Likert scales I found the tutorials useful I took part in the tutorial tasks  The tutorial tasks helped me develop  The tasks helped me become a more reflective learner  I am intrinsically motivated  I have a strong future self idea  I enjoyed the foundation course overall  Plus demographic information (age, gender, nationality, pathway) Designed according to Dorneyi (2007)

Results (n=29) Eliminated Cronbach’s alpha Scale title Mean (1-5) 1 1e   Eliminated Cronbach’s alpha Scale title Mean (1-5) 1 1e .717 I found the tutorials useful 3.01 2 2a .735 I took part in the tutorial tasks  3.39 3 3e .855 The tutorial tasks helped me develop 3.46 4 n/a .858 The tasks helped me become a more reflective learner 3.43 5 .739 I am intrinsically motivated 3.74 6 .727 I have a strong future self idea  7 8.14 I enjoyed the foundation course overall 3.99

Gender/Age/Nationality/Pathway No statistically significant relationships found

Correlations between scales (n=29) Sig Develop Reflective .601 .000 Useful .547 Intrinsic Future self .496 Positive .457 .010 .420 .376 .007 .361 .002 .311

Discussion These are reasonably popular, but not to a great extent Lack of evidence that these tasks help the most vulnerable students

Future directions The need for tutor and student buy in Moving from tutorials to online and class discussions Longitudinal study

References Dornyei, Z. (2009) ‘The L2 motivational self system’ in E. Ushioda and Z Dornyei (eds) Motivation,, Language Identities and the L2 Self. Pp 9-42 Bristol. Multimedia matters Dweck, C and Master, A (2009) ‘Self Concept’ in W. Carey et al (eds) Developmental-Behavioral Paediatrics (Fourth Edition) pp427-435 Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Fanghanel, J. (2009) ‘The role of ideology in shaping academics’ conceptions of their discipline’, Teaching in Higher Education, 14(5) , pp 565-577, DOI: 10.1080/13562510903186790 Dornyei, Z. (2007) Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press Holliday, A, Hyde, M and Kullman, J (2010) Intercultural Communication: An advanced resource book for students. Abingdon, Routledge