Contextualising higher education assessment task words with an ‘anti-glossary’ approach

Key ‘generic’ assessment task words such as ‘discuss’ and ‘critically evaluate’ are integral to higher education assessment. Although sources such as study skills guides give generic decontextualised glossaries of these words, much research rightly argues for greater dialogue between students (particularly ‘non-traditional’ students) and lecturers to help students understand and use such words. This paper presents the results from ‘staged’ focus groups with lecturers and students from the UK and China that created a forum for such dialogue, where many of these words and their interpretations were talked about. Results show very different interpretations, informed by factors such as ‘language’, ‘culture’ and ‘subject’. We propose these factors be used in an ‘anti-glossary’ approach, which we describe here. This approach is not against glossaries per se, but counteracts the assumption that glossary definitions are explicit, and adopts a social constructivist contextualisation of the task words through teacher-led dialogue.     

Motivations for entering and pathways of progression of disabled students in further education

Issues concerning the relevance of the human and social capital theories in further education and particularly in the inclusion of disabled people are highlighted. Data are drawn from an ongoing ethnographic study into the experiences of disabled students in two further education colleges. Extracts from 12 focus group discussions with 70 students as well as fieldnotes from observation of courses and other college activities are used to map out the pathways by which the participants entered and progressed through the college and the courses they undertook. Also explored is the significance of the college experience in the student's lives and the extent it has succeeded in enhancing their degree of social inclusion.     

Mature Female Entrants to Higher Education: Closing the Gender Gap in the UK Labour Market

Within the wider drive in higher education to promote students' use of information and communications technology (ICT) it is assumed that the Internet will be a key application. Popular conceptions of a 'wired' generation of students at ease with on-line learning persist through official literature and the media. From this basis, the present paper takes an empirical perspective in students' use of the Internet, via focus group interviews with 77 students in two UK universities, and explores the factors underlying their use (and non-use) of the Internet in university. Four crucial themes were identified, namely: (i) the ways in which students were introduced to using the Internet; (ii) operational problems encountered when using the Internet as an information resource; (iii) treatment of information retrieved from the Internet; (iv) the social element of learning in on-line environments. These factors are examined in detail and discussed in relation to the future presentation and organisation of students' Internet use in university settings.     

Teachers as mediators: an exploration of situated English teaching

Within the context of lower secondary English teaching in South West England, this study identifies in broad terms the competing goals between which English teachers mediate and the explicit and hidden tensions that result. To understand the interactions of competing goals, teachers' goal‐oriented behaviours are referenced to a set of idealised ‘role types’ based on the dimensions of goals, norms, discourses and practices. It is asserted that competing goals, significant to particular educational circumstances, emanate from various sometimes contradictory local, national and perhaps broader social and cultural influences on practice. Yet the teachers observed moved smoothly between goal‐oriented behaviours in a continuous and comfortable style, easily and without reflecting any tensions between them. Thus, this article elaborates an account of situated English teaching.     

Improving learner outcomes in lifelong education: formal pedagogies in non‐formal learning contexts?

This article explores how far research findings about successful pedagogies in formal post‐school education might be used in non‐formal learning contexts – settings where learning may not lead to formal qualifications. It does this by examining a learner outcomes model adapted from a synthesis of research into retention. The article first introduces the model. It then explores this model to identify pedagogy suitable for formal education. Next it asks whether this pedagogy may also be appropriate for use in four non‐formal learning contexts: community development; adult literacy; workplace learning; and personal interest learning. While it gives a qualified ‘yes’ to the question, it acknowledges some shortcomings in the pedagogy for non‐formal adult learning. Finally, the article attempts to address shortcomings by integrating a critical dimension into the model, suggesting that learner outcomes in formal education could also benefit from the inclusion of this critical dimension.     

The paradigmatic hearts of subjects which their ‘English’ flows through

Much research into the use of corpora and discourse to support higher education students on pre-sessional and in-sessional courses champions subject specificity. Drawing on the work of writers such as Bakhtin [(1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by MM Bakhtin (M. Holquist, Ed.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press] and Voloshinov [(1973). Marxism and the philosophy of language (L. Matejka, & I.R. Titunik, Trans.). New York: Seminar Press. (Original work published 1929)], in this article we extend this research by showing how the specific subject ‘context’ is fundamentally linked with the ‘English’ used within it. We first detail some of the literature related to corpus and genre studies and discuss some of the literature related to the importance of providing a context for language. We then present and discuss data from 21 interviews and five focus groups with subject lecturers to illustrate how the ‘English’ used in the subject areas of ‘Design’, ‘Nursing’, ‘Business’ and ‘Computing’ subjects flows through what we term their ‘paradigmatic hearts’. By ‘paradigmatic heart’ we mean the set of values, beliefs and perceptions that represent the central or innermost engine of the subject, through which its ‘English’ flows. In ‘Design’ the paradigmatic heart is ‘visual’, ‘philosophical’ and ‘persuasive’; for ‘Nursing’ it is ‘emotional’ and ‘empathetic’, yet also ‘technical’; for ‘Business’ subjects it is ‘income generating’, ‘numerical’ and ‘persuasive’; and for ‘Computing’ it may be ‘visual’, ‘numerical’ or ‘code-based’. We demonstrate how ‘English’ flows through the paradigmatic heart of its subject and that to remove the ‘English’ from its subject paradigmatic heart changes its nature. Thus, we argue that if students are not being taught ‘English’ in the context of the subject, the ‘English’ we are teaching them will be different, and that preparation and support needs to be undertaken in the subject itself.