An exploration of how programme leaders in higher education can be prepared and supported to discharge their roles and responsibilities effectively

Background: Within Higher Education in the United Kingdom (UK), programme leaders are under increased pressure to be more productive and are expected to undertake a complex range of demanding activities. However, perceptions of the role through the lens of the programme leader have not been explored sufficiently. Clearly, a university’s ability to enhance and sustain improvement in programme delivery depends largely upon its ability to nurture and foster professional learning, most notably at a programme level. The need for a review of programme leader training and support was reinforced through the experience of facilitators at programme leader workshops at one Higher Education Institution in the UK. Critically, these workshops highlighted a need to review and enhance the preparation and on-going training and support available to programme leaders.

Aim: The overall aim of this study was to explore the role of the programme leader, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of what the role involves and a detailed appreciation of the knowledge and skills required to discharge the role effectively and efficiently. Such insight would inform the review of the provision of initial and on-going training and support workshops for new and experienced programme leaders. Indeed, the ultimate aim was to drive improvements in programme leader performance.

Method: A qualitative design was selected to allow the complexity of the programme leader role to be explored and captured. A purposeful sample (n = 25) was recruited from a range of newly appointed and experienced undergraduate and postgraduate programme leaders and associate deans with academic quality assurance and learning and teaching expertise across seven schools in one post-1992 university in England. In total, four semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted. A modified version of the data analysis method advocated by Chenitz and Swanson was employed to examine the data.

Findings: Four dynamic, interrelated conceptual categories form the basis of the emergent findings. These are Operational Diversity, which addresses the different duties carried out by participants, highlighting certain tensions in their ability to meet the demands placed upon them; Interaction with Others, which identifies the diverse range of stakeholders that shape and impact on the multifaceted programme leader role and highlights the importance of collaborative working; Mechanisms of Support, which describes the training and personal development experience of the participants and the extent to which it matches their needs; and Required Knowledge and Skills, which considers the need for initial and on-going training to enable programme leaders to meet the demands of this role.

Conclusion: Examination has revealed that within an ever-changing Higher Education sector in the UK, the role of a programme leader is not without challenge as most have to deal with complex academic, pastoral, moral, administrative and pragmatic decisions on a daily basis. Moving forward must involve bespoke preparation and on-going training and support. Specific emphasis should be placed on opportunities for self-reflection, debriefing and the sharing of experiences with peers. At the heart of on-going training and support should be the strategic engagement of students, professional staff and other key personnel from services offered across a university.     

Listening to Student Voices

This study explores the perspectives of rural and suburban adolescents on the nature of schools, teaching, and leadership that influences learning. Middle and high school students with and without disabilities offer relevant insights to educators who are seeking to promote greater engagement, community, and success in their schools. Results suggest that student voices can be a powerful tool for school improvement.     

A Study of the Relationship between the Diets and the Health of 25 Negro Families in Scotland Ville,Louisiana

Using a hypothetical data set, the authors provide concrete examples to illustrate that canonical correlation analysis is a general linear model, subsuming other parametric procedures as special cases. Specific statistical techniques included in the analysis are t tests, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and discriminant analysis. The discussion is aided by an initial explanation of the logic of canonical analysis. Further, similarities between the canonical technique and other univariate and multivariate procedures are highlighted. The treatment is intended to reiterate a framework in which statistical concepts can be presented to students.     

MEMORY STRATEGIES REPORTED BY OLDER ADULTS FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND EVERYDAY LEARNING TASKS

Semistructured interviews were used to identify memory strategies used by 35 older adults. Five types of tasks were used: paired‐associate learning, free recall, serial recall, rule learning, and reading comprehension. For the first three tasks, two types of materials were developed: experimental and everyday. The nine memory activities were presented separately. Participants were asked to describe the strategies they would use for each activity. Order of presentation for the experimental and everyday materials was counterbalanced. Examination of the frequency data revealed differences in the number and type of strategies reported for the five types of learning tasks. An analysis of variance revealed that the group receiving the three everyday tasks first reported a significantly greater use of strategies on all tasks. These results indicate that the elderly may have limited repertoires of alternative memory strategies and that the types of materials used can significantly affect their performance.     

Academic identification as a mediator of the relationship between parental socialization and academic achievement

This study examines whether academic identification, or one’s psychological and emotional investment in academics, mediates the association between child-reported parental educational socialization and standardized achievement test scores among a predominantly ethnic minority sample of 367 urban middle school students. We predicted that academic identification would mediate the relationship between five forms of perceived parental academic socialization (future-oriented, teaching-oriented, effort-oriented, shame-oriented, and guilt-oriented) and achievement when controlling for prior achievement. We found confirmation for this effect among analyses involving teaching, future, and guilt forms of socialization. For teaching, this effect was not present for Black boys. Direct effects indicated that teaching and future socialization was inversely related to student achievement, but when mediated by academic identification it was positive. Guilt was only related to achievement through academic identification. Results suggest the importance of the manner in which parental educational socialization is engaged.     

Students’ perceptions of written feedback in teacher education: ideally feedback is a continuing two-way communication that encourages progress

A small but growing body of research has investigated students’ perceptions of written feedback in higher education but little attention has been brought to bear on students’ emotional responses to feedback. This paper investigates students’ perceptions of written feedback with particular emphasis on their emotional responses within a teacher education programme in a regional Australian university. Online questionnaires were used to gather qualitative data from cohorts of distance students and on-campus students. The study found that students’ emotions strongly mediated their perceptions of written feedback. The paper concludes that in order to accommodate students’ emotional responses, effective written feedback should be aligned with pedagogies which specifically include the development of rich dialogue within the teaching and learning context.     

Reading education action zones

During the last few decades, the concept of equivalence has assumed an increasingly important role in Swedish educational policy, and at the same time the actual meaning of equivalence has been given different authoritative interpretations. The shift in significance which the concept has undergone seems to be not only an aspect of the social power play of which it is part, but also, at the same time, a clear expression of the ‘reality constituting’ power of language. In the 1970s and early 1980s the concept referred to a common curriculum and equally allocated resources, ensuring that all students would have an educational experience that was both shared and equal. In the late 1980s and 1990s, this meaning of equivalence was challenged by something quite different: a reference to a form of curriculum distribution and resource allocation that put primary emphasis on allowing students and their parents to freely pursue educational choices and on providing an array of curriculum possibilities that varied according to the interests of students and their parents. From the perspective of the challenged meaning of equivalence the question asked is what the markedly weaker emphasis of the former shared frame of reference in favour of increased individual freedom may imply in the light of new conditions for the shaping of community through education.     

Struggling to understand abstract science topics: A Roundhouse diagram-based study

This study explored the effects of Roundhouse diagram construction on a previously low-performing middle school science student's struggles to understand abstract science concepts and principles. It is based on a metacognition-based visual learning model proposed by Wandersee in 1994. Ward and Wandersee introduced the Roundhouse diagram strategy and showed how it could be applied in science education. This article aims at elucidating the process by which Roundhouse diagramming helps learners bootstrap their current understandings to reach the intended meaningful understanding of complex science topics. The main findings of this study are that (a) it is crucial that relevant prior knowledge and dysfunctional alternative conceptions not be ignored during new learning if low-performing science students are to understand science well; (b) as the student's mastery of the Roundhouse diagram construction improved, so did science achievement; and (c) the student's apt choice of concept-related visual icons aided progress toward meaningful understanding of complex science concepts.