Here project ntu staff 2012

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HERE to Stay? Findings from the HERE Project 2008 - 2011 Ed Foster & Sarah Lawther - Nottingham Trent University

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HERE Project Staff Workshop

Transcript of Here project ntu staff 2012

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HERE to Stay? Findings from the HERE Project 2008 - 2011

Ed Foster & Sarah Lawther - Nottingham Trent University

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Warming up your brains

• Please decide

• For you, which is the most important factor for student retention

Knowing your students?Friends &

social engagement? Academic transition?

• Go to the relevant sign • Agree as a team your two most persuasive arguments why • We’ll be sharing them in a few minutes

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HERE ProjectHigher Education: Retention & Engagement

Two areas of work

- Impact of doubting on student retention

- Impact that programme teams can make on retention

Focus on first year

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Doubting

• Defined as having doubts about the course/ university serious enough to consider leaving

• How many students are doubters in the literature?– 21% Rickinson and Rutherford (1995) – 39% Sodexo (2010)– Yorke & Longden (2008) – 25% (rising to 40% if less informed about course)

• Doubting as a cause of withdrawal– Gradual accumulation of doubts - Ozga and Sukhnandan (1998)

• Differences between doubters and leavers– Internal factors - Mackie (2001), ability to adapt - Roberts et al (2003)

• But UK progression is good– NAO (2007) suggests that progression to yr 2 is approx 90%– Our work is therefore also about engagement

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Engagement

• Retention is the minimum form of engagement

• Kuh et al (2008) describe student engagement as:– “the quality of effort students themselves devote to educationally purposeful

activities that contribute directly to desired outcomes and the effort institutions devote to using effective educational practices”.

– ‘… positive, statistically significant effect on persistence, even after controlling for background characteristics....’ (Kuh et al, 2008, p551)

• Astin (1985) - engagement (involvement) along a continuum

• Hardy and Bryson (2010) student engagement – Belonging, emotional engagement – More than the classroom activities– Multiple loci

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Methodology

• Strand 1 – Doubting

• Welcome Week Surveys & Student Transition Surveys (2009 & 2011) to all first year undergraduates (online) (n=2,995)

• Student focus groups with doubters and non doubters

• Analysis of persistence

• Strand 2 – programme team impact

• Interviews with 10 programme teams– what do programmes do to support retention?

• Survey of students on same programme

• Created case studies of 10 programmes across the three institutions

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Key Findings

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Finding a) Approximately one third of first year students have experienced doubts sufficiently strong to make them consider withdrawing at some point during the first year

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Finding b) Doubters are more likely to leave than non-doubters• 483 students granted us permission to monitor their persistence

– 182 doubters– 301 non-doubter

• Tested Dec 2009 - Overall progression better than institutional benchmarks

• Implications– Links to other UK research & supports Ozga & Sukhnandan’s model

• Withdrawal not due to a sudden shock

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Finding c) Doubters reported a poorer quality experience than students who have not doubted • Measured 17 student experience factors

– For example ‘my subject is interesting’

– Tested both the importance and actual experience of a factor– In most instances importance was higher than the actual experience

• Exceptions – social, peer & family support

– Average gap for non-doubters = 12%– Average gap for doubters = 29%– Tested seriousness in 2011, more serious doubts = poorer experience reported– Factor analysis grouped the Student Experience Factors into 3 variables

• Academic Experience Variables• Support, Resources and Future Goals• Student Lifestyle

– Strongest link between academic experience and likelihood of early withdrawal

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Poorer quality experience cont.

• Doubters reported:– Less likely to understand differences between FE & HE– Less likely to have had difference explained– Less likely to find pre-arrival course accurate

– Finding course less enjoyable– Fewer friends & less likely to find course ‘friendly’– Less likely to feel that they belonged– Studies harder to cope with

• At UoB actually scored lower grades

– Feeling less confident to ask for help

• Overall gave an impression of being far less well engaged with their peers, their course and their university

• Evidence about UCAS tariff was inconclusive

“I don’t seem very involved with the University to be honest …

probably if I see my tutor on the road, he wouldn’t recognise me”.

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Finding d) Students usually report more than one reason for doubting

• Doubting appears to become a state of mind

• Looked for differences between doubters who stayed & doubters who left

• Doubters who left reported a more negative experience overall

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Finding e) The primary reasons for doubting are associated with student perceptions of the course

• Similar to other studies– for example Yorke &

Longden 2008

• Course was the main focus for most students

• Most important academic reason was ‘doubts about coping’

2009 Student Transition Survey

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Finding f) There were four main reasons cited by doubters for staying

• ‘Support from friends and family’

• ‘Adapting to course/ university’

• ‘Determination/ internal factors’

• ‘Future goals/ employment’

• Impact of friends & family undervalued by students– Importance 13th of 17 Student Experience Factors– More likely to experience supportive friends

– In 2009, open question • Friends & family most important (friends at university)

– In 2011, when asked to choose from options, most important reason• Friendship features scarcely at all

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Finding g) The primary times for considering leaving are immediately before and after Christmas

• Weather, tiredness & January blues will play a factor, but

• Also key times around first assessments & feedback

• Relatively few of our respondents stated that they had doubts before arriving at University– Perhaps had already withdrawn, or had forgotten early stresses

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Finding h) Students reported different degrees of doubting

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Finding i) Some student groups appear more likely to doubt than others

• Students are more likely to be doubters if they are in the following groups

– Female – but less likely to actually leave• Prior US studies suggest that female students suffer a dip in confidence during the first year not

recovered until the second• Male doubters were far more likely to leave

– Student with disabilities – more likely to have doubts

– Part-time students – more likely to leave

– Accommodation (living in private halls more likely to doubt)

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Discussion

• To what extent does this chime with your experiences/ understanding?

• Do you have any questions/ thoughts/ observations/ limericks that you’d like to share?

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The HERE Project Toolkit

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The HERE Project Toolkit

• Findings from Strand 1–Doubters experience difference from non doubters? Consider factors that reduce leaving and increase staying–Findings led to programme survey questions

• Strand 2–Appreciative enquiry approach - what works? –Case study questions –Survey of students on same programme

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Findings

• Different programmes addressed different themes according to nature of cohort

• No magic bullets, but lots of small interventions that when combined make a difference

• Influences how we work with programmes

• Knowing your students

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The HERE Project toolkit

• 9 recommendations to improve retention and engagement

• Broadly around two themes– Reducing doubting in the first place– Supporting doubters

• Each with suggested actions

• Diagnosis comes as part of the first theme

• Suggest teams implement strategies that work for them

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Using the Toolkit

Stage 1Take Stock‘Identify students at risk’

Programme leader

Look at formal & informal dataAsk questions - What do you

already know?

Stage 2Consider ‘student transition’ & ‘social integration’

Team meeting/ away day

Reflect on own practices, discuss recommendations & make plans

Stage 3Review

Subsequent team meetings

Review progress, reflect and consider other themes

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Using the Toolkit

• Summary

• Cards – designed as a resource for discussion and staff development– Intention is to prompt thinking

• How do you address themes? What works well? What could you share? What could be improved?

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Using the Toolkit

• Aimed at programme teams– Tool for discussion– Team meetings– Away days– Staff development events

– In a perfect world, would be facilitated

• Experiences so far– Staff just grateful for the opportunity to discuss– Interesting that communication across programmes weaker than we expected– Lots of interest in the cards – generated sharing of good practice

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Using the HERE resources

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Using the recipe cards

• We’re going to vote to look at two of the three themes

Knowing your studentsFriends &

social engagement Academic transition

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Discussion task

• Would like you to read and discuss the sets of cards

– Then in your groups sort into two sets

– We already do this well/ it’s a low priority for us

– I would like to do something with this in my team

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Toolkit review

• Normally, we’d ask teams to develop an action plan from the cards, but clearly given the fact that people are from very different teams, that’s not possible

• However, if we presented your team with a set of cards, what guidance/ further information would you need to make them more (or even just) useful

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Review

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Quick review

• Doubting appears to increase the risk of leaving

• Students who withdraw early report a poorer quality experience– Particularly around the academic sphere

• Withdrawal therefore tends not to be because of sudden crisis – Although there are likely to be tipping points

• Factors that appear to work– Relationships with peers and tutors– Transition to learning in HE– Engaging learning & teaching– Goals & motivation– Sense of belonging