Enhancing the First Year Student Experience Nottingham | Jun 2014
Village Greens, Magnetic Walls & Polished Concrete
Michael GormanSenior Learning & Teaching Fellow
http://twitter.com/macgormain
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/artschool
Contexts | Manchester
• World’s First Industrial City– “Cottonopolis” | Rutherford Splits Atom | World’s First Computer
• Media City– BBC | Northern Quarter | Diversity/Regeneration
Contexts | Manchester School of Art
• Founded in 1838– 3500 students | 14 degrees | 59 nationalities
• Part of Manchester Metropolitan University– New £35 million building programme, – Architecture; Art; Design; Media/Theatre
Alumni includes Thomas
Heatherwick, Norman
Foster, John Mayall,
Dame Julie Walters,
Steve Coogan, Sylvia
Pankhurst, Ossie Clark,
Mick Hucknall…
Genesis | Questions
Why are Universities erecting so many “statement” buildings?
What do these buildings say to our first year students?
Why do we lose so many first year students in the early weeks of the programme (when many students are in a liminal state)?
Right City?
Right Uni?
Right Course?
(Yorke & Longden (2008)
Right Environment?
Genesis | Questions
“The apparent connection between day-to-day premises maintenance and learning may need to be drawn to the attention of institutional managements. It seems that small things may make a big difference to learning: grand architectural statements may not be necessary.
We need a better understanding of the role of space in the dynamics of creating more productive higher education communities and its connections with learning and research. This should be the subject of further research. The literature throws almost no light on managerial decision-making about space issues affecting students or staff: this is a topic where further work would be useful.”
Temple (2007)Learning Spaces for the Twenty-First Century Higher Education Academy
Genesis | …and Les Watson
“We spend a lot of time trying to change people. The thing to do is to change the environment and people will change themselves.” Les Watson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Glasgow Caledonian University
JISC “Designing Spaces
for Effective Learning”
(2006)
Genesis | …meanwhile Down Under
“While research into the student experience has focused on what students do and how they engage, research into where students are engaging and how this influences their engagement is needed.”
Matthews, Andrews & Adams
(2011)“Social Learning Spaces &
Student Engagement”
Higher Education Research &
Development
Context | HE in the UK
National Student SurveyCap on Recruitment Numbers lifted
in 2014-15
RetentionAnd
Student Satisfaction = key policy concern
Change!Russell Group
to invest £9 billion in buildings
Dynamic change to secondary system
How do we manage transition?
League table rankings
Marketisation of HE in UK
Context | The Canon
Kuh (2001, 2003)Cook & Rushton (2009)STAR Project
First Year Student Experience
Kift (2004)Astin (1975, 1984)
Chickering & Gamson (1987)
Tinto (1977, 1993)
Yorke & Longden (2008)
Plus…
Krause (2005)
McInnes & James (1995)
Pascarella & Terenzini (2005)…
Context | The Canon
Bennet (2007)Montgomerie( 2008)
Physical Environment?
Oblinger (2005)Jamieson (2003)
Webb, Schaller & Hunley (2008)
JISC (2006)
Temple (2007) HEA Report
“The literature throws almost no light on managerial
decision-making about space issues affecting students or
staff”Temple (2007)
Methodology
Understanding the physical environment
Focus Interviews with Key Staff
IncludingArchitect
Tensions!
Case Study
ManchesterSchool of Art
QuestionairreVisits
Surface
1. Navigation, Colour & Coding
2. Light/Sound/Temperature
3. Signage
4. Permission
5. Room Booking…
6. Workshops
7. Interactivity
8. Security and Openess
9. Reception
How do first year students read andinterrogate a building?
Concepts | Spaces
Contested…
Boundary
Digital (including the VLE)
Dialogic
Making (Writing)Savin-Baden (2010) Learning Spaces McGraw Hill
“Liminality”Acknowledge
and use!
It’s about staff too!We are all learners…Co-creation of Curriculum
Submerged1. Anomie (Durkheim)
2. Liminality (Savin-Baden)
3. Interaction or transaction? (Berne)
4. Engaging the senses…(NLP)
5. Cultural capital (Bordieu)
6. Communities of Practice (Wenger)
…sense of belonging routed in
curriculum engagement…Explore narratives
of transition
Next1. Encourage sensual exploration
(drawing/photography/film…use instagram/pinterest)
2. Open Open Open Day for First Years – permission!!
3. Dialogic/Making Spaces – be explicit!
4. Leave room for Boundary/Liminal spaces…
5. Encourage communities of practice
6. Understand where students come from
7. A Learning Building (ie a Building that Learns)
8. Student (and Staff) voice?
9. Pilot? Engage with Architects…
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