Peer mentoring for first‐year teacher education students: the mentors’ experience

Universities worldwide are developing peer mentoring programmes to assist first‐year students’ transition into university life. Awareness of the mentees’ experiences in the mentoring programme – the successes and challenges – contributes to ongoing planning for successful transition for first‐year students. Also, understanding the mentors’ experiences can contribute to the success of the programme and, more importantly, can lead to strong self efficacy for the mentors. This qualitative study appraises a mentoring programme for first‐year undergraduate students from the mentors’ perspective. The mentors’ experiences, both positive and negative, are discussed and a relational model of mentoring is presented. The results of this inquiry have implications for the development of future mentoring programmes, particularly in terms of mentor recruitment and preparation, if first‐year students are to be effectively oriented and supported in their transition to university study.     

‘On the outside I’m smiling but inside I’m crying’: communication successes and challenges for undergraduate academic writing

Abstract

Student difficulties with the transition to writing in higher education are well documented whether from a ‘study skills’, an ‘academic socialisation’ or an ‘academic literacies’ perspective. In order to more closely examine the challenges faced by students from widening participation backgrounds and diverse routes into undergraduate study, this project focuses on first-year undergraduate experiences of developing academic literacies on an Education Studies programme at one university in England. It highlights the impact of different support and guidance within and beyond their degree programme where attempts to embed academic literacy development are part of subject modules. The paper reports the findings generated using a mixed methods interpretive approach. Questionnaires were collected at the beginning (n = 48) and end of the students’ first year (n = 44), and interviews and visual data collection methods (n =19) were used at the mid-point of the academic year. Key findings highlight students’ expectations of achievement on entry to university and the influence of the emotional journey of students as they begin to make progress as academic writers. Identifying, selecting and applying academic reading were an enduring concern whilst some students struggled with the digital literacy implicit in undergraduate work. Importantly, some strategies developed to support student transition to academic writing in higher education may have unintended consequences as they progress through the first year.     

They give us homework! Transition to higher education: the case of initial teacher training

This article examines some issues surrounding transition to higher education. It is based on the case study of a cohort of Year 1 students in a modern university in England. The purpose of the study was to ascertain any potential transitional issues and therefore any areas for development in our Year 1 programmes to aid student progress. Data were gathered via semi‐structured questionnaires distributed to Year 1 initial teacher training students and their lecturers and through focused conversations with a group of students. The main findings of the study indicate that independent study and assessment processes pose challenges for students in their first year at university, and it is hoped that the outcomes of this research will contribute to a more informed transition from school to university through developing a clearer understanding of prior educational experiences that inform first‐year undergraduate expectations and needs.     

A scaffolded approach to Discussion Board use for formative assessment of academic writing skills

Mastery of academic writing skills remains one of the greatest challenges for university students, especially in the first year. Amongst the reasons offered for the challenges are lack of clarity about the university’s expectations and low levels of teacher feedback on work submitted, a failure to engage, and low levels of contact with teaching staff and other students. Academic staff are challenged by increased class numbers and increased student diversity in classes and university policies to adopt a wide range of information technologies into teaching modes. In this paper, we offer one attempt at addressing these three important contemporary academic challenges: use of information technology to provide timely feedback through formative assessment to help students with a range of abilities to acquire the academic writing skills necessary to succeed in higher education. Early indications show that students find this form of formative assessment very useful. They value the timely and focused feedback from the lecturer and are developing collegiality as they learn from each others’ writing and feedback. We believe that this strategy is sustainable and can be adapted to facilitate academic and social integration for students across many disciplines.     

The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education

The personal tutor plays a key role in the student experience at university, and personal tutoring embodies the student relationship with the university, suggesting that it has the potential to provide insights beyond that specific relationship to the institution and higher education context. A focus session with first year undergraduate students explored expectations and experiences of personal tutoring from the student perspective. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore students’ lived experiences, and identified superordinate themes of expectations, experiences and relationships, with cluster themes including independence and authenticity. Developing a positive and genuine relationship with the personal tutor was found to ‘buffer’ against some of the first year challenges and contribute towards a sense of belonging. Importantly, this study provides evidence that experiencing poor personal tutoring is worse than not having a personal tutor at all, as this can lead to students experiencing strong negative emotions and re-evaluating their decision to go to university. Implications of these findings in the current higher education context of fee-paying students and competing institutional demands are discussed.     

In search of the feeling of ‘belonging’ in higher education: undergraduate students transition into higher education

ABSTRACT

Previous research that evaluated first year students’ transition into university found that the values of ‘being, belonging and becoming’ were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the nature of their academic study and the feeling of belonging. This paper provides a further illumination to our work by reporting on the qualitative data collected in the same study. The study included 530 students from five cohorts over a five-year period. As part of the Student Experience Evaluation instrument, open-ended questions probed students about their early experiences of belonging and transition into university. This original research uses rich data to illuminate the scales and items from previous quantitative data analysis to explore ‘belonging’, triangulated with research from the field. This paper is timely due to increased emphasis placed on learning and teaching with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework. Student satisfaction is not a simplistic measure and this study articulates the complexity of student belonging in Higher Education.     

Making the connection: Examining the relationship between undergraduate students’ digital literacy and academic success in an English medium instruction (EMI) university

The transition through the first year of university study is challenging for the majority of students. For students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, commencing studies in an English-Medium Instruction (EMI) university program presents a number of specific challenges. These students are faced with meeting both language demands as well as learning expectations of the institution, which often differ markedly from their previous formal learning experiences. Developing CALD students’ digital literacy practices has been shown to lead to improved academic performance, success and retention in some higher education settings. This paper focuses on the digital literacy practices of undergraduates at a national public university in a Gulf State. Results from a survey and focus groups are analysed to identify the students’ access to and use of digital technologies, in order to better understand how their academic success can be enhanced through digital literacy development. The study identifies a disconnect between students’ perceptions of their digital capabilities and the institutional requirements for study. The research recommends that providing integrated, institution-wide digital literacy development focused on accessing, assessing and incorporating online resources in their work, will help improve transitioning CALD students’ preparedness for undergraduate study in this and other EMI universities.

     

Challenges of university adjustment in the UK: a study of East Asian Master’s degree students

This paper reports on the adjustment of East Asian Master’s level students who came to study at a campus-based university in the UK during 2004–05. International students face challenges in respect to language proficiency, academic expectations and social participation. In this longitudinal study the experiences of a group of students from East Asian countries were surveyed, with a sample of eight students from five countries tracked through regular interviews. The paper describes the level of satisfaction that students experienced and the challenges they faced. It was found that students largely enjoyed their sojourn and achieved satisfactory levels of academic success. They encountered ‘culture bumps’ rather than culture shock. Adjustment was facilitated by adequate preparation, appropriate academic attainment and satisfying levels of social participation with other international students. It is suggested that these students were experiencing an ‘international postgraduate student culture’ rather than integration into local culture.     

Motives for becoming a teacher and their relations to academic engagement and dropout among student teachers

Using students’ diaries as a frame of reference, this research project set out to learn more about how they experience foreign language classes in their first university year, over two semester periods (from September to June of the academic year 2007/08). The diaries were produced by 35 students of English Studies at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. The data gathered from these diaries were classified into three sections: Section 1 provides a qualitative study of the students’ opinions of the lessons (subdivided into three different areas of interest: what learners expected, what they valued and what they criticised); Section 2 covers comments on feeling expressed about their first experience at university; finally, in Section 3, the data are reconsidered to shed light on the students’ learning strategies.     

Enhancing the transition of commencing students into university: an institution-wide approach

The importance of the first year experience (FYE) to success at university is well documented and supported with the transition into university regarded as crucial. While there is also support for the notion that a successful FYE should have a whole-of-institution focus and models have been proposed, many institutions still face challenges in achieving institution-wide FYE program implementation. This paper discusses the origins, theoretical and empirical bases and structure of an institution-wide approach to the FYE. It uses a case study of the Transitions In Project (TIP) at the Queensland University of Technology to illustrate how institution-wide FYE program implementation can be achieved and sustained. The TIP had four interrelated projects focusing on at-risk students, first year curriculum, learning resources and staff development. The key aim of TIP was to identify good practice and institutionalise it in a sustainable way. The degree of success in achieving this is evaluated.     

DELINQUENCY AND THE SCHOOLS

Primary teachers in their first year of teaching, and two groups of students in their final year of university, were surveyed in order to determine the nature of attitude changes during teacher education and in the first teaching year. One group of students was followed into its first year of teaching. The attitudes of the trainee teachers and novices were contrasted with those of experienced teachers and non‐education students over a two‐year period, using a semantic differential instrument.

The overall finding was that Lortie's contention that the attitudes of American teachers are based on their own early experiences as pupils in school holds for Australian teachers also. While there was some change in student attitudes during the final university year, towards the ‘progressive’ orientations of the university course, this orientation did not persist far into the first year of teaching.     

An empirical study into gender differences in the relationships among academic,social and psychological adjustments of university support

There are three dimensions through which to measure university support for students’ transition to university life: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. Previous research studies show that there are relationships among those adjustments. However, less is known about gender differences in these relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived gender differences in perception of the relationships among these adjustments during the first year undergraduate transition period. The study is based on a survey of 114 first year undergraduate students from a Hong Kong local university. The findings show that (1) female students perceive social adjustment to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students, (2) female students perceive psychological adjustment to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students, and (3) there is no significant difference in the relationship between social and academic adjustments for female and male students.     

(Re)Producing Mathematics Educators: A sociological perspective

Whilst participation in higher education has increased dramatically over the last two decades, many universities are only now beginning to pay more attention to the learning experiences of first year students. It is important for universities to understand how first year students conceive of learning and knowing in order to promote effective approaches to learning. Even though an extensive body of research demonstrates that beliefs about learning and knowing influence student approaches to learning and learning outcomes, there has been no Australian research that has investigated this critical learner characteristic across first year university students. This paper reports on preliminary data from an ongoing longitudinal study designed to investigate first year students’ beliefs about knowing and learning (epistemological beliefs). Students from teacher education and creative industry faculties in two Australian universities completed the Epistemological Beliefs Survey (EBS) in the first week of their first semester of study. A series of one‐way ANOVA using key demographics as independent variables and the EBS factor scores as dependent variables showed that epistemological beliefs were related to the course of study, previous post‐school education experience, family experience at university, gender, and age. These data help us to understand students’ beliefs about learning and knowing with a view to informing effective learning in higher education.     

Students’ writing ‘in transition’ from A-levels to university: how assessment drives students’ understandings,practices and discourses

The lament that ‘students can’t write’ remains loud and defiant, even after years of research pointing to the myriad factors that make students’ writing challenging, particularly when they move into university. This paper reports on a longitudinal, ethnographic study which explored students’ writing ‘in transition’, from A-levels to university in the UK, through the critical lens offered by the academic literacies conceptual framing. This paper offers critical analysis of the ways that students, teachers and institutions position writing at A-level and university, exploring the assumptions and beliefs that underpin their understandings and practices using Ivani?’s framework of discourses of writing. The analysis proposes that the centrality of assessment in the treatment of language at both levels creates an ‘assessment discourse of writing’, which originates in school, and becomes a defining and restrictive frame for students’ writing as they move into higher education. The analysis further suggests that assessment is the principal cause for the students’ challenges with adapting to the writing requirements of university. Moreover, assessment is used as a metalanguage for discussing writing at A-levels, and can become an unhelpful ‘anchor of continuance’ for students as they move into university.     

Factors affecting intention to leave in the first,second and third year of university studies: a semester‐by‐semester investigation

As most research into attrition and retention has focused on attrition during the first year of studies, we know little about the relationship between students’ experience of subsequent years and their decisions to withdraw from university. This paper addresses this gap in research by examining the relationship between students’ intention to withdraw from studies and their experience of university in each of the three years of Business degree studies. This empirical research indicates that the factors affecting intention to withdraw are differentiated not only by year but also by semester of study.     

Adjustment to university and academic performance among disadvantaged students in South Africa

Adjustment to the university environment is regarded as an important factor in predicting university outcomes. This study explores the pathways taken by adjustment and other psychosocial variables (help‐seeking, academic motivation, self‐esteem, perceived stress, and perceived academic overload), in relation to the success of economically and educationally disadvantaged students at university. Participants were 194 first‐year students on need‐based financial aid at a South African university; they completed questionnaires that measured these psychosocial variables, and their final first‐year academic results were obtained via the university’s records office. Path analyses showed that adjustment did not function as a pure mediator on academic performance as the dependent variable. Furthermore, the psychosocial factors explained much (59%) of the variance in the students’ adjustment and 20% of the variance in their academic performance. Hence, the psychosocial variables better explained the students’ adjustment to university than academic performance.     

Foundation degree to honours degree: the transition experiences of students on an early years programme

This article focuses on an exploratory study, undertaken in 2009–2012, which explored student transitions from a foundation degree (level 5) into the third year of a BA honours degree (level 6). Direct entry students and staff from an early years programme at a post-1992 British university and second-year foundation degree students and staff from the corresponding foundation degree at nine dual-sector further education colleges took part and completed online questionnaires about their experiences (N = 156). A sample of students and staff (N = 20) was subsequently interviewed about themes that arose from the questionnaires. Three themes emerged: (1) the difference between studying at foundation degree and at honours degree level; (2) student emotions about progression and issues around personal identity (students spoke about ‘not being good enough’, ‘feeling guilty’ ‘not fitting in’ and ‘trying to balance it all’); and (3) ways in which the transition process could be improved upon, including building prior relationships between university staff and students and more information being made available. Our findings on the emotional nature of progression as well as the challenges that face personal identity offer significant contributions to the research literature. Furthermore, we suggest that improving the progression experiences of students is not only important in terms of retention and student experience but also in light of recent changes to student fee structures which may make foundation degrees more attractive to students. This could potentially increase the numbers of students progressing to university for the final year of their degree.     

The first semester of university life; ‘will I be able to manage it at all?’

This paper reports on an Irish study examining first year students’ recollections of their concerns, motivations, level of preparedness and perceived skills on entry to university. The study aims to investigate and understand the implications of the attitudes of first year students as they make the transition to university. It also explores students’ behaviour during their initial weeks at university. It is important to understand the anxieties of new students, their views on their abilities and their confidence in managing their new role as these factors will have consequences for their experience as first year university students. These findings are explored with a view to enhancing the quality of support for students during this key transition.     

Neuropsychological Assessment of First‐Year Architecture Students’ Visuospatial Abilities: Overview

First‐year architecture students are expected to utilise visuospatial abilities to generate/construct, retain, rotate and manipulate space mentally and physically through physical and digital representations. This study of 57 female and 23 male participants was conducted to investigate first‐year architecture students’ visuospatial abilities by means of the Beck Depression Inventory, Logical Reasoning Test and Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO) test. Participants’ sexes, cognitive development level, depression scale scores, university entrance exam results, vision disorders, physical competences, art training prior to university and error types were the study’s main parameters. The results showed that academic scores of the participants both to enrol in the program and complete the first‐year studio did not correlate with their JLO scores. Nondepressed participants performed better in JLO. Error analyses demonstrated that there is a concentration on certain items according to the test stimulus line positions, especially in females. Those who reported limited physical and visual competency made more mistakes in the same items. The study concludes that sex, depression, and individual differences in physical and visual competency, and art training, are significant variables for visuospatial performance. Judging visuospatial parameters through spatial design exercises is different from having proper methods and instruments to assess the achievements of the students regarding those abilities in architectural design education. It is important to map students’ visuospatial abilities individually from a developmental perspective. There is a strong need to develop 4D psychometric instrument to assess visuospatial abilities.     

Student and tutor perceptions of learning and teaching on a first‐year study skills module in a university computing department

The level of student preparedness for university‐level study has been widely debated. Effective study skills modules have been linked to supporting students’ academic development during the transition phase. However, few studies have evaluated the learning experience on study skills modules from both a student and staff perspective. We surveyed 121 first‐year students and seven tutors on a study skills module on an undergraduate computing programme. The aspects in which the students’ and tutors’ views diverge provide insights into the perceptions of academic tasks and associated competencies for higher education and the delivery of study skills in practice for computing students.