Evaluating student satisfaction - restricting lecturer professionalism: outcomes of using the UK national student survey questionnaire for internal student evaluation of teaching

Abstract

In the neo-liberal context of a UK university, responding to student feedback in order to raise student satisfaction levels is important in improving National Student Survey (NSS) scores. This article focuses on the impact of a UK university’s new student feedback questionnaire - for individual modules - which used the NSS questions. The research draws on survey data (N?=?101) to identify lecturers’ views and three student focus groups. The outcomes raised issues relating to performativity, professionalism and ‘provision’, the latter defined as the university’s contract with each student, including the aspects that affect the student learning experience but are beyond the lecturers’ control, for example, class sizes and timetables. The results indicate that by recognising the impact of provision university managers may be better able to develop systemic improvements to student experience and (in the UK) a corresponding uplift in NSS and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) results. The article puts forward a model linking performativity, professionalism and provision to the relationships between university managers, academics and students. This model could enrich understandings of professionalism and performativity, extend the range of issues affecting student experience in SETs and support data analysis in future research studies.     

What Do Teacher Mentors Tell Student Teachers About Pupil Learning in Infant Schools?

Abstract

Recent emphases on experiential classroom learning in the induction into expertise of student teachers may over‐estimate the learning support that class based practitioners offer students. Current understandings of teachers' thinking and planning suggest that expert practitioners may not be best placed to provide student teachers with frameworks for understanding what Shulman (1987) categorises as general pedagogical knowledge. Data from a sample of 11 UK infant school teacher mentors in the form of 5 hours of taped planning and evaluatory conversations with 20 students have been content analysed. Teacher‐talk related to explanations of how pupils learn forms the focus of the paper. Implications for mentor training and school‐university partnerships are drawn from the analysis of the data. Finally the need to confront the language difference that obtains between schools and universities in order to develop the theoretical base of teacher education is asserted.     

Independent learning – what we do when you’re not there

Independent learning is one of the cornerstones of UK higher education yet it is poorly understood by students and is seen by politicians as a poor substitute for face to face teaching. This paper explores students’ understandings, approaches and experiences of independent learning and how they may become more effective independent learners. This large scale qualitative study, funded by the HEA, included students-as-researchers, independent learning diaries, and student-led interviews. Findings suggest that students initially use low level reinforcing and organising skills and in later stages of their courses develop higher level extending and applying skills. Clearer guidance, clearer tasks and in-course support are amongst the students’ recommendations for enhancing independent learning. However the most powerful influence on their independent learning was the support, collaboration and advice of other (more experienced) students in non-assessed scenarios. These findings have implications for staff involved in induction, student support, curriculum design and for staff and officers in Students’ Unions.     

‘Teaching is a co-learning experience’: academics reflecting on learning and teaching in an ‘internationalized’ faculty

This paper reports on a study that took place in a faculty of humanities and social sciences at a UK university. The institution had recently undergone a radical restructure and the vision for the future presented by the new senior management team highlighted internationalization as one of four major areas for growth. The internationalization agenda was largely focused on increasing recruitment, but provided an opportunity to engage the academic community in a discourse about what internationalization meant for them and the challenges and opportunities it presented. Emerging themes relate to experiences and understandings of internationalization, with implications for learning and teaching, and student induction and support. The value of discourse about pedagogical development and practical innovations and the sharing of best practice are suggested as means to achieve conceptual change and a broader vision of internationalization.     

Boundaries and bricolage: examining the roles of universities and schools in student teacher learning

The literature shows that an active exploration of difference between university‐ and school‐based perspectives can provide important opportunities for student teacher learning in initial teacher education. This paper presents a study that looks at the learning opportunities presented to student teachers as they talk about teaching and learning with their school‐based mentor and part‐time university‐based tutor on a distance education course in initial teacher education in the UK. The study adopts an activity theoretical approach complemented by a broader social learning theory perspective. Content analysis is used in four separate cases to examine and report on conversations that centre around one taught lesson. The study reveals understandings about the way that learning opportunities are presented to student teachers and argues that it can be enhanced by looking at student teacher learning systemically, with a focus on dissonant perspectives.     

A scholarly approach to solving the feedback dilemma in practice

It is clear from the literature that feedback is potentially the most powerful and potent part of the assessment cycle when it comes to improving further student learning. However, for some time, there has been a growing amount of research evidence that much feedback practice does not fulfil this potential to influence future student learning because it fails in a host of different ways. This dilemma of the disjuncture between theory and practice has been increasingly highlighted by the UK National Student Survey results. This paper uses a model of the assessment process cycle to frame understandings drawn from the literature, and argues that the problem with much current practice resides largely in a failure to effectively engage students with feedback. The paper goes on to explore how best to effectively engage students with assessment feedback, with evidenced examples of feedback strategies that have successfully overcome this problem.     

Exploring staff perceptions of student plagiarism

This paper presents analysis of qualitative data from a research project looking at staff perceptions of plagiarism at a post‐1992 university. Twenty‐six members of staff from departments and academic schools from across the university took part in open and semi‐structured interviews. Analysis shows that variable definitions of plagiarism exist; both regarding student activities that constitute plagiarism and the way in which plagiarism is perceived to be related to cheating. The factors underlying these personal definitions are unclear, but the analysis suggests that values perceived to underpin higher education may play an important role. This paper provides new empirical data on staff perceptions of student plagiarism, which complement previous research on student perceptions. The potential implications of different perceptions of plagiarism, and a mismatch between staff and student understandings is highlighted as an area for further consideration.     

The role of operation sense in transitions from arithmetic to algebraic thought

As attention to the development of algebraic understandings at early grade levels increases, theory and empirical support for these efforts are needed. This paper outlines a theoretical perspective for studying student understandings of mathematical operations, with a particular focus on addition. The notion of operation sense is defined using a perspective that incorporates the construction of mental objects. In the context of addition, it is argued that operation sense can be used to describe student development of additive concepts as well as transitions into algebraic ways of thinking. The report of a case study on the development of a young boy is then provided. The investigation attempts to instantiate the framework in regard to student development of an understanding of addition. Evidence was found that his attainment of aspects of operation sense supported transitions into algebraic ways of thinking, including a finite group setting and use of addition on unknown and arbitrary quantities. Limitations of the framework are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Improving a mathematical key skill using precision teaching

Mathematics is a core subject in the UK curriculum, with high standards achievement a policy of the UK government. Innovative approaches and strategies have been advocated to achieve these high standards. One approach that has been advocated is Precision Teaching, supported by its successful application in schools in the United States. For this study, a 12-week programme was devised to develop student fluency in the multiplication timetables. A key skill task was devised and scores compared before and after programme implementation. Pre-programme scores revealed poor student performance on this key skill. Post-programme results show an improvement for children using Precision Teaching, with some outperforming the average of their classmates. The paper endorses previous findings that fluency is important for student progress through the curriculum. It also endorses research findings that adding practice and timed assessment improve student performance levels. These results were achieved with minimal disruption and materials. The paper recommends educational practitioners to support further research into the practicalities and suggested benefits of fluency-orientated education.     

History teachers' thinking about the nature of their subject

This paper addresses how secondary history teachers view the nature and purposes of their subject and how they think these views impact on their practice. Data were collected through individual qualitative interviews with eleven UK history teachers at the start of their careers. Their views on the nature of history are broadly empiricist with postmodern perspectives having been less influential. Their rationales for the subject emphasise broader educational purposes. The case for further emphasis on subject understandings in teacher education is made through a consideration of the implications of a lack of emphasis of more postmodern perspectives on classroom practice.     

The Cambridge Garden House Hotel Riot of 1970 and its Place in the History of British Student Protests

This article highlights a violent incident in the history of British student protests and outlines the judicial process that resulted. A wider consideration of student protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, both in the UK and overseas is offered, together with some consideration of the significance of this particular case. At the time of the incident, and during the crown court and appeal hearings, the names of the defendants, of other prominent student protesters, the University proctors and witnesses who provided evidence were published in the press. It is not thought appropriate to name these persons in this article.     

Staff conceptions of curricular and extracurricular activities in higher education

This paper explores conceptions of curricular and extracurricular in UK higher education. Reporting on a case study of staff understandings of the extracurricular we argue that our data highlight the lack of debate about curricular matters. We found that there was considerable blurring of boundaries in conceptions of the curricular and extracurricular and argue that this is related to the lack of any stable or explicit conception of the curriculum in UK higher education. The paper highlights issues of recognition and non-recognition of the sorts of cultural capital which flow from traditional and other forms of extracurricular activities (ECA) and points to the continued gendering of caring and its valuing. Recognition of capital from within diverse communities and derived from activities which have not been traditionally conceptualised as ECA might contribute to graduate outcomes, but there are limitations to a politics of recognition. We argue that account also needs to be taken of the materiality of student lives and the constraints they face.     

Scaffolding the Appropriation of Self-regulatory Activity: A Socio-cultural Analysis of Changes in Teacher–student Discourse about a Graduate Research Portfolio

This study informs the design and development of pedagogical agents that can flexibly support self-regulation by calibrating guidance to specific phases and facets of self-regulated learning (SRL) as individuals encounter challenges and develop more sophisticated understandings of the task and content. From a socio-cultural perspective of self-regulation, we examine the transition of self-regulatory control from teacher to graduate student during naturalistic instructional conferences. Three goals included (a) examining teacher–student dialogue about a complex task to see if fading actually occurs, (b) examining whether support and fading of support are calibrated to specific phases of the self-regulatory process at a given point in time, and (c) examining techniques used for scaffolding and fading scaffolding directed toward specific phases and facets (behavioral, cognitive, metacognitive and motivational) of the self-regulatory cycle. Findings support a socio-cultural perspective of SRL demonstrating a transition from teacher to student regulation across phases and facets of SRL. The paper concludes with an examination of how our findings can inform the design of computer-based scaffolds that can support SRL.     

Higher education,participation and devolution: the case of Northern Ireland

This paper outlines some of the key changes in higher education participation in Northern Ireland from the mid-1980s onwards and places the discussion of participation in the evolving policy context of devolution in the United Kingdom. The paper draws upon research conducted on participation and the migration of students and graduates. Changes in student numbers by level and mode are complemented by a consideration of social class, religion, and gender. The analysis distinguishes between different reasons for migration or staying in Northern Ireland. The discussion highlights some of the early consequences of devolution in the UK for higher education participation and suggests that the UK system previously regarded as unified is set to become increasingly differentiated.     

‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: Working‐class students in UK higher education

Drawing on case studies of 27 working‐class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity with more general understandings of how students are positioned in relation to their discipline, their peer group and the wider university, the article examines the influence of widely differing academic places and spaces on student identities. Differences between institutions are conceptualised in terms of institutional habitus, and the article explores how the four different institutional habituses result in a range of experiences of fitting in and standing out in higher education. For some this involves combining a sense of belonging in both middle‐class higher education and working‐class homes, while others only partially absorb a sense of themselves as students.     

Beyond a psychology of student behaviour

This article considers developments in conceptualising and responding to student disruption and disaffection. Commencing with the educational sociologist John Furlong’s attempt to fuse psychology and sociology to better understand disaffected students, this essay also engages with a recent attempt at transdisciplinary considerations of student disaffection. It is argued that the biopsychosocial model as advocated by Paul Cooper promises to extend the analysis of student disaffection and disruption. The biopsychosocial model as postulated by Cooper is weighted towards the biopsycho and is limited by scant consideration of the biopolitics of the increasing prevalence of behaviour disorders. Nikolas Rose’s examination of the development of medical knowledge is enlisted to suggest broader possibilities for transdisciplinary lines of inquiry. The transdisciplinarity of Cooper’s suggested model is important and points to the potential of the responses from across fields of knowledge to assist in building more nuanced understandings of social organisation and behaviour.     

The pedagogical potential of drawing and writing in a primary science multimodal unit

In consideration of the potential of drawing and writing as assessment and learning tools, we explored how early primary students used these modes to communicate their science understandings. The context for this study was a curricular unit that incorporated multiple modes of representation in both the presentation of information and production of student understanding with a focus on the structure and function of carnivorous plants (CPs). Two science teacher educators and two first-grade teachers in the United States co-planned and co-taught a multimodal science unit on CP structure and function that included multiple representations of Venus flytraps (VFTs): physical specimens, photographs, videos, text, and discussions. Pre- and post-assessment student drawings and writings were statistically compared to note significant changes, and pre- and post-assessment writings were qualitatively analysed to note themes in student ideas. Results indicate that students increased their knowledge of VFT structure and function and synthesised information from multiple modes. While students included more structures of the VFT in their drawings, they were better able to describe the functions of structures in their writings. These results suggest the benefits for student learning and assessment of having early primary students represent their science understandings in multiple modes.     

Measuring student teachers’ understandings and self-awareness of sustainability

Understanding sustainability is important, as people need to cope with issues associated with over-population and over-consumption. Education is seen as a key strategy to assist with the development of people’s understandings of this complex concept, which could then lead to them being able to make more sustainable lifestyle decisions. In order to teach this concept, teachers need to understand sustainability. This paper investigated 77 New Zealand student teachers’ understandings of sustainability and the level of self-awareness of their understandings. A definition of sustainability was developed for this research from which two tools were constructed to measure these teachers’ level of understanding and self-awareness. Findings showed that many of these student teachers had simplistic understandings of sustainability that were focused on an environmental component. Further evidence of their low level of understanding was illustrated in the way that over half of this group were not able to accurately rate their own level of understanding. These findings suggest a need for the development of teachers’ understandings of sustainability so that they can plan and teach effective sustainability education programmes.     

Do flexible admission systems affect student enrollment? Evidence from UK universities

We reveal the current level of flexible admission systems (FAS) at UK universities, and explore its impact on student enrollment rates. We employ quantitative analysis techniques for data collected and customized from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in the UK, during the period 2010–2015. To understand the impact of FAS on student enrollment, six statistical tests were conducted. Based on the level of FAS adopted by universities, we identified four groups of UK universities: very low, low, medium, and high levels of FAS. No robust evidence exists to support claims that universities which apply a higher level of FAS have higher student enrollment. The study results were based only on secondary data collected from HESA, so future studies should be based on other types of data. This paper attempts to cover the missing elements of previous literature and its traditional research techniques.     

‘Walking yourself around as a teacher’: gender and embodiment in student teachers’ working lives

This paper considers the psychic and social dynamics reported by student teachers when learning to embody their teacher persona in the secondary school environment. Focusing on gender dimensions of embodiment and drawing on qualitative interview data from a UK study of postgraduate teacher‐training students, teaching is examined as a physical experience. The paper conceptualises findings under two related headings: the appropriately gendered body, signified by heteronormative readings of gender and sexuality; and the gendered authoritative body, conceptualised as male. The ‘teacher body’ emerges as an important element of student teachers’ stories of trying to fit with the new professional environment and the paper concludes by arguing for a consideration of gender and body politics in the practice and training of teachers, thus challenging the assumption that professional occupations are essentially ‘disembodied’ and gender neutral.