1. Stepping up/down/across to the 2nd year
Mantz Yorke
Liverpool John Moores University
18 April 2013

2. First year
Second year

3. What do institutional data tell you?
A ‘sophomore slump’?
Or not?

4. Evidence from UK studies
[Some] evidence for what is sometimes called 'second year blues'.
Students maintain their interest in skills and experiences (and
some aspects of knowledge) over the first year of their studies
but then lose motivation in the second year. The encouraging
message is that motivation in many areas recovers in the final
year.
(Jacobs and Newstead, 2000: 252.)
Lieberman and Remedios (2007) found drops in
students’ ratings of their interest in their subject of study;
their enjoyment; and
their orientation towards mastery from the first year –
drops that never recovered in the subsequent years

5. The ‘sophomore slump’ in the US
Recognition in the US that second year students have
substantial needs but receive the least attention of all
undergraduates
Many second-year students ‘suffer from reduced motivation or
apathy, declining grade point averages, or a letdown from their
first year’. Pattengale and Schreiner (2000: vi)
The possible influence of a lack of direction and a sense of
disconnection in second-year students. Graunke and Woosley (2005)
Griffith University in Australia has recently been studying
the 2nd year experience, drawing on work in the US

6. ‘Slumping’: some aspects of causal complexity
The psychological make-up of the student, including
goal orientation and subject desire
commitment
self-competency beliefs
Curriculum-related matters, including programme design and
pedagogy
Differences in marking criteria and grading; and a mismatch
between staff and student expectations of learning outcomes
Extraneous factors such as undertaking part-time work whilst
studying, sorting out accommodation issues; adventitious events

7. What is the 2nd year like? Student reaction
‘The excitement of the first year is gone’
‘Starting life again in year two’ (inc social readjustment to new groups)
2nd year perceived as less important; can be more relaxed
Non-academic achievements (e.g. sport, social life) to the fore
Stricter marking is a shock
Poor choice of optional modules in Year 2 ( lower motivation)

8. What is the 2nd year like? Curriculum issues
1st and final year work sharply defined: what about 2nd year?

9. Second year
First year

10. What is the 2nd year like? Curriculum issues
1st and final year work sharply defined: what about 2nd year?
Step-change from 1st year
‘The real work begins now’
2nd year doing the hard yards in preparation for for final year

11. There’s no magic bullet
There is a multiplicity of possible nudges to practices
But which nudges, and when?