Moving beyond access: reflective learning commentaries as a WP resource Sally Findlow Keele University

Aims 1. Students’ perceptions of challenge and difficulty in the school-university transition 2. How they feel about these and strategies they have adopted to overcome them 3. Their experiences of transformation – in organisational, cognitive and social terms 4. How they construct career and identity frameworks around their experiences 5. Their thoughts about learning and HE 6. And how these things might in certain circumstances be different for non-traditional students

School-university transition “large amounts of unguided reading” “having no expectations” “There was a definite feeling of being bombarded with information” “I felt slightly overwhelmed with all this stuff I was supposed to be remembering” “I was told that the reading we were set … was the bare minimum!” “Even when I managed to get some shelf marks for possible books, I was unable to find the numbers anywhere.”

Transformation “I have now begun to prevail over this.” “I have become more efficient / confident …” “This way my work stayed in order.” I became more organised and efficient with my time.” I felt more in control with my note taking.” “The short presentation that I had to do … made me think about techniques to improve myself.”

Roles, identities & power “I feel I have acquired skills in preparation, group cooperation in order to meet pre-set requirements.” “… enabled me to understand the criteria and standards expected.” ……. “I left all my family and friends to start my new life at Keele.”

So, the questions … i. What difficulties and obstacles are students encountering in the school-university transition, and what are their strategies for overcoming these difficulties? ii. What kinds of ‘transformations’ do students’ accounts describe – cognitive, and social? iii. How far are alternative roles and identities being explored? iv. What do students see as the function of HE? v. To what extent are perceptions of benefit seen in cultural and whole person development, as well as economic, terms? vi. How do answers differ between different sorts of students (including ‘non-traditional’ students) and different universities? vii. What relationships are there between prior educational experience and current experience of HE in these terms? viii. What evidence is there of the impacts in these terms of different policy initiatives and pedagogic approaches?