Research Seminar Series 2009:

Access and Success for All

Jamie ThompsonJamie HardingKaren Williamson

Northumbria Bedfordshire and Manchester Universities

To illuminate and improve student retention (student progression, student success)

One of seven funded three year projects Building on previous work with ELLI ELLI? Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory

Learning Power

Curriculum and Assessment Practices

Pedagogy

Institutional Ethos

Worldviews andTraditions

Home, Family and Community

Cultural Tools

Peer Culture

Self-regulation

Goal Orientation

Interest

Sense of SelfAs Learner

Effort

DispositionsLocus ofControl

Self-efficacy

Skills and Capacities

AwarenessSelf Esteem

72 item questionnaire Tested and Validated Self-report Malleable and situational Statements of how think / feel / behave as a

learner 4 point Lickert scale Available online Instant feedback as a spider diagram Class / group profiles also produced

Changing and Learning Meaning Making Critical Curiosity Creativity Learning Relationships Strategic Awareness Resilience

Being Stuck and Static Data Accumulation Passivity Being Rule Bound Isolation & Dependence Being Robotic Fragility & Dependence

Do students’ dispositions change in the course of their academic programme

Does using ELLI in itself boost student retention and achievement?

Are there dispositions to learn that have an impact on student retention and achievement?

Can retention initiatives based on problematic dispositions be formulated and evaluated?

4 students who have withdrawn compared to 374 who have not

‘Withdrawers’ achieved higher mean scores on every dimension

Differences significant for Critical Curiosity and Strategic Awareness

PCAP students higher than other groups on Critical Curiosity, Meaning Making, Resilience and Strategic Awareness

Psychology students lower than journalism students on Creativity and Critical Curiosity

Educational Practice students higher than Journalism in Learning Relationships

Men scored significantly higher on Critical Curiosity, Resilience and Creativity

Woman had higher mean marks Men achieved significantly higher marks

when they scored higher on Critical Curiosity and Strategic Awareness

Women achieved significantly higher marks when they scored higher on resilience

Students from lower socio-economic groups scored lower on Learning Relationships

Non-British students scored higher in the area of Creativity and Strategic Awareness, but achieved lower mean marks (not sig.)

Chinese students had higher levels of Creativity than White students

3 focus groups: one academic staff on PCAP programme and two students on MAP

5 individual interviews: four ambassadors of MAP students and one academic staff at Manchester

Questionnaires from academic staff introducing ELLI to students

Triangulation in the areas of Critical Curiosity and Changing and Learning

Students perceived benefits of self-reflection for personal development

Students found the language of ELLI advantageous

Staff positive, some concerns over practical issues

How should we respond to higher scores on dimensions among students who withdraw?

Will negative correlation between marks and Learning Relationships and Creativity be reproduced more widely?

How do students dispositions change with time – can this be influenced by interventions?

Is there an appropriate response to gender differences?

Exploration of changes to learning dimensions with time

Larger datasets to examine further relationships between learning dispositions and marks

Exploration of the impact of combinations of different dispositions

More withdrawers to make comparisons in terms of learning dimensions

Exploration of learning dimensions with:

Students who have withdrawn from an academic programme

Students who have been referred in an academic programme

Students who have high scores in high dimensions

Evaluation of guidebook highlighting good practice in the use of ELLI

Evaluation of different methods of introducing ELLI to students

Development of initiatives to boost key learning dimensions

Evaluation of initiatives