The Student Voice
What students are saying about their learning experiences
Andy CoverdaleClaire Mann
Odessa Petit dit Dariel
www.visuallearninglab.ac.uk
Presentation outline
Part 1: Background & context• Process: PAR - Participatory Action Research• Output: Video of the student voice• Outcome: Video workshops w/ staff - iterative cycles
Part 2: PAR - the methodology & the VLL project• Foundations: Participation, Action, Research• Cycles & Stages
Part 3: the Video• Staff workshops• Future developments
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Background & Context
Theme 2: Challenges in HE
• Digitisation of education
• Student as consumer – empowered
• Student feedback & assessment
• HEFCE - students to take a central role in quality assessment & feedback in QAA
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Process: Researching the ‘Student Voice’
• Not a unique concept:
• JISC “In their own words” (3rd party)
• VLL: student interns as researchers
• Nature & development of research = PAR
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Output: SFG & video development
• SFG around the university
• What is visual learning?• What have been your best & worst learning
experiences
• Transcribed & coded in Nvivo
• Video developed using students’ voice
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Outcomes: Feedback Loop
• Education Pilot
• Vet School
• Classics
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Participatory Action Research (PAR)
"Research which involves all relevant parties in actively examining together current problematic situation in order to change and improve it. They do this by critically reflecting on the historical, political, cultural, economic, geographic and other contexts which makes sense of it."(Wadsworth, 1998)
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History of PAR
• Psychology, social and educational research• Action Research (Kurt Lewin) - Action / reflection
cycle• Participatory dimensions – critical, social and
educational
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PAR: Participation
Research Parties (Wadsworth, 1998)• The researcher(s), the researched, and the
researched for
Authentic Participation• Empowering and emancipatory• Democratic and non-coercive
Collective Self-reflective Enquiry• Record, collect and analyse reactions and feedback
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PAR: Action
• Not end product!
• Affect positive change – improvement / reproduction
Critical Inquiry• Circumstances, actions and consequences• Political process – wider contexts• Resistance to change (participants and others)
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PAR: Research
Start Small!• Small cycles and groups (McTaggart, 1989) • Manageable, controllable and realistic• Bottom-up approach
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Cyclical Model
Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)
4 ‘Moments’ of Action Research“Self-critical communities of people participating and collaborating in the research processes of planning, acting, observing and reflecting.”(McTaggart, 1989)
Interdependent and cyclical
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www.visuallearninglab.ac.uk
Stages of PAR
• Action-reflection cycles occur through a number of stages
Granularity• Action and reflection determined by scale• Cycles within cycles• Stages and cycles can overlap and take place
simultaneously
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Preliminary StagePLANStudent interns as researchers
ACTVLL core team engaged with student interns
OBSERVEIdentify relevant learner issues
REFLECTRole of student interns - unique position
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Stage One: Student Focus GroupsPLANEmpowering / promoting the student voice
ACTConducting and analysing student focus groups
OBSERVEKey themes / categories emerged from the data
REFLECTRoles as ‘students as researchers’
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Coding: Themes and CategoriesLearning ContextsLecturesSmall Groupwork / SeminarsOther (inc. Online, Field, Lab Work)
Themes / CategoriesInteractivity and EngagementPersonalised LearningSelf-directed Learning and Student ChoiceVisuality and MultimodalityTechnologiesTeaching Styles, Competencies and Training
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Stage Two: Video WorkshopsPLANDisseminating findings to practitioners
ACTDesigning and presenting video workshops
OBSERVERecord feedback from practitioners
REFLECTOngoing discussion
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Stage Three: Wider Dissemination
PLANDisseminating to external audiences
ACTPresenting at the SRHE Conference
OBSERVEWhat’s happening here!
REFLECTReflect with other student interns
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Stage Four: Future Development
PLANDisseminating to a wider internal audience
ACTPlanning to present to PGCHE and MA(Ed.) students
OBSERVE
REFLECT
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ReferencesHughes, I. & Seymour-Rolls, K. (2000). Participatory Action Research: Getting the Job Done. Action Research E-Reports, 4. http://www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/arow/arer/004.htm
Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R., Eds. (1988). The Action Research Planner. 3rd Edition. Victoria: Deakin University.
McTaggart, R. (1989). 16 Tenets of Participatory Action Research. The Third World Encounter on Participatory Research. Managua, Nicaragua. September 3-9. http://www.caledonia.org.uk/par.htm
Wadsworth, Y. (1998). What is Participatory Action Research? Action Research International, Paper 2. http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/ari/pywadsworth98.html
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