Writing and Writing Instruction in Different Academic Contexts
ANTICIPATION: RAISING ASPIRATION AS THE PATH TO SUCCESS
Sarah Johnson
Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
“‘Success’ means helping all students to become more engaged and more effective learners in higher education” (Higher Education Academy: What Works? Student Retention and Success Programme, 2012). Given that students in the UK cite ‘academic issues’ as one of the primary reasons for considering withdrawing from their university, Nottingham Trent University Learning and Teaching Team (LTT) in collaboration with the Schools, College and Community Outreach Team (SCCO), are developing strategies to introduce preentry students to the rigors of the academic skills required in higher education. Research conducted at Nottingham Trent University (Foster et al., 2011) suggests that our understanding of students’ prior learning experiences can inform policy to manage and ease the transition into Higher Education, but it is hoped that new collaborations which seek to anticipate ‘academic issues’, such as new forms of pedagogy and more complex writing requirements (GanobcsikWilliams, 2010) will serve to alleviate this burden. In light of the ‘whole lifecycle’ approach to student learning then, (Ebdon, 2014) which aims to engage students at an early age to raise aspiration and achievement, the LTT in collaboration with SCCO is currently developing a range of activities and resources to scaffold the development of academic skills from primary school Year 3 onwards. This presentation will offer an overview of the design, delivery and evaluation of the activities involved in this project.
References
Foster et al. (2011) Learning Developers Supporting Early Transition. In: P. Hartley, ed. Learning Development in Higher Education Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, ch. 6
GanobcsikWilliams, L. (2010) 'Academic Writing in Higher Education: A Brief Overview'. [online]. Available from https://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/file/3864c712580ba0dcc7c6b1421e1a5dd0/1/Academic%20writing .pdf [Accessed 16/01/2015]
Office for Fair Access (2014) Office for Fair Access Annual Report and Accounts 201314 [online]. Available at http://www.offa.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2014/07/HC435OFFAannualreportandaccounts1314rev.pdf ] [Accessed 16/01/2015]
Thomas, L. (2012) Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: What Works? Student Retention and Success programme. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/whatworksstudentretention/What_Works_Summary_Report [Accessed 16/01/2015]