Student Engagement implications for revalidation Roisín Curran

Student Engagement (SE) Recent/Current initiatives SE strategic work stream CHERP/SU focus groups with students prior to revalidation HEA funded Students as Partners change programme 2012-2013 CHERP conference Jan 2013 – Student Engagement: a catalyst for transformative change HEA/Paul Hamlyn foundation funded What Works? Student Retention & Success Change Programme 2012-2016 What we are doing?

Student Engagement Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society (RAISE 2010). Reference: RAISE (2010) Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student engagement. Available at http://raise-network.ning.com/. Accessed 25 September 2013

Student Engagement to Improve Student Retention and Success The What Works? Model: improving student engagement, belonging, retention and success (Thomas, 2012) how? Useful conceptual model which underpins the SR&S change programme Want to focus on the circles – institutional, staff and student capacity building Developing the capacity of staff and students to engage: the capacity of students to engage and staff to offer an engaging experience must be developed, thus a partnership approach in which everyone is responsible for improving student belonging, retention and success is required. (The capacity of students and staff are represented by the two blue rings respectively.) Thomas, L. (2012) What works? Student Retention and Success. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Building engagement & belonging 2011-12 At Ulster 8.7% (UK 5.7%) of students leave HE in their first year of study Between 37%-42% think about withdrawing (WW phase 1) Range of reasons Belonging has emerged as a key idea in this research programme Engagement develops relationships with others and promotes connectedness… Why? Benchmark was 6.6 Nurturing belonging…p14

Student Engagement (SE) Institutional reference points Learning and Teaching Strategy 2013/14-2017/18 Graduate qualities Guidelines for first year teaching Transition policy Principles of Assessment and Feedback for Learning

Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation? Section B Commentaries B2.5 Learning, Teaching & Assessment B2.7 Creativity, innovation & good practice B2.10.1 Graduate Qualities B2 10.2 Widening Participation B4 Modules

Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (1) Strategic Aim 2 Key supporting objectives Section To provide transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student partnerships that engender a shared responsibility To develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence through active learning experiences with fellow students from diverse backgrounds, to engender a sense of student belonging and identity B2.5 B210.2 B2.7 To develop supportive partnerships and learning communities amongst and between students and staff to engender mutual respect and trust To develop ways of working that foster students’ active engagement with their learning and career progression and values their contributions to shaping the design and delivery of programmes.

Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1) Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (2) Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1) Strategic Aim 2 Key supporting objectives Section To provide transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student partnerships that engender a shared responsibility To ensure that all students are clear about what they can reasonably expect of their course and what is expected from them B210.2 B4 B210.1 B2.5 B2.7 To embed within the curriculum opportunities for students to develop as global citizens, socially, ethically and environmentally aware, sensitive to international contexts and cultures To exploit opportunities within course design and programme delivery for internationalising the curriculum and the student body To provide explicit opportunities for students to learn about sustainability, formally and informally, engaging with communities and employers. To develop and implement more efficient and effective methods for collecting, analysing and responding to student feedback on a timely basis.

Research-Teaching Nexus implications for revalidation Vicky Davies

Research-Teaching Nexus (RTN) Strand 1 Pedagogic Research (PR)/Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) capacity building Strand 2 Research as inquiry (RAI): comprising Research-informed Teaching (R-IT) and Research-enhanced Learning (R-EL)

Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation? Section B Commentaries B2.6 Research/scholarship informed teaching and curriculum B2.7 Creativity, innovation & good practice Section C Staff & professional development

Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1) Strategic Aim 1 Key supporting objectives RTN Section To provide appropriate learning opportunities which are flexible, responsive to and inclusive of, the needs of students, professions and the wider community To promote, embed and develop safe yet challenging learning environments that support active learning, through a learning and teaching ethos underpinned by current and appropriate discipline-specific and pedagogic research and scholarship, building, where appropriate, upon new and emerging technologies PR SoTL B2.6 B2.7 To promote and embed inquiry-based activities across the curricula which are designed to develop a range of generic, info-literacy, critical inquiry and/or subject specific research skills, and their transferability into professional settings and/or further study RAI

Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (2) Enabling Aim Key supporting objectives RTN Section To provide a supportive environment, in which innovative approaches to learning, teaching and leadership are encouraged, recognised, valued and rewarded, for all staff and students in the university To further develop communities of practice, including students, in order to promote scholarly dialogue, and encourage and facilitate the sharing of effective practice between and within subjects and departments... PR SoTL B2.6 C To promote and encourage professional reflection, critical thinking and pedagogic research on the student learning experience by all those involved in the facilitation of learning and teaching To increase the proportion of, and support for, staff seeking internal recognition of effective learning and teaching practice through alignment to the UKPSF To lead, encourage, support and disseminate scholarship of learning and teaching and pedagogic developments by staff and students RAI

Engagement through partnership Where now? Engagement through partnership “Partnership is understood as a relationship in which all involved are actively engaged in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together to foster engaged student learning and engaged learning and teaching enhancement. Partnership is essentially a way of doing things, rather than an outcome in itself Partnership is a process of student engagement All partnership is student engagement but not all student engagement is partnership” Healey et al. (2014. p1)

Where now? Healey, M., flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education. York: HEA Available at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HEA_Framework_for_partnership_in_learning_and_teaching.pdf In particular – look at series of self-evaluation questions (p.6) to support staff, students, institutions and students’ unions who wish to explore how they could develop and embed learning and teaching partnerships E.g. LTA To what extent, and how are active and collaborative learning approaches embedded in student learning experiences? LTA How are students and staff involved in the delivery and assessment of learning? RTN To what extent, and how, do students and staff contribute to the development of knowledge in their subject area/professional field? 12 questions – 4 sections

Process of Partnership Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership carried out 2013-14 majority of staff and students are very positive about working in partnership to effect change Staff report that their own approach to practice is changing More open to the student body Less likely to treat their students as a homogenous group Becoming more reflective about their practice Roisín

They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership Student partners have reported that their perspective on HE is changing They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues Enjoy problem-solving with staff They feel that this approach is breaking down perceived barriers between staff and students Learning new skills whilst developing their own self-confidence Edge award reflections Challenge going forward – how do we engage wider student body?