This presentation forms part of a workshop held as part of the HEA Enhancement Event 'Student transitions: journeying into, through and beyond higher education'. Further details: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events-conferences/event10248 The blog post that accompanies this presentation can be accessed via: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/tackling-transition-stem

1. TACKLING TRANSITION IN STEM
Dr Janet De Wilde

2. Aims of the
workshop
• Hear – findings and recommendations
• Identify and share own transition practice
• Reflect upon and plan enhancements
• Network
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Students
Teachers
Lecturers

3. Bridging the gap
3
Secondary
System
Tertiary
System

4. Department for
Education We work to achieve a highly
educated society in which
opportunity is equal for children
and young people no matter what
their background or family
circumstance

5. Business,
Innovation and
Skills (BIS)
Responsible for:
•working with further and higher education providers to give
students the skills they need to compete in a global
employment market
•supporting innovation and developing the UK’s science and
research industry, which is important to help economic
growth
•making sure consumer law is fair for both consumers and
businesses, and that consumers know their rights and are
able to use them effectively
•supporting British businesses to increase productivity and
compete anywhere in the world
•better regulation - by cutting the amount of regulation and
making it easy to understand we can help businesses cut
time, save money and be more efficient

6. Bridging the gap
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Tertiary
System
Secondary
System

7. STEM
Colleagues
•Biological Sciences
•Built Environment
•Computing
•Engineering
•Geography, Earth and
Environmental Sciences
•Mathematics, Statistics & OR
•Physical Sciences
•Psychology

8. Sector Dialogues
•Over 16 national events in Wales
and England bringing teachers
and lecturers together.
•Aim to encourage positive
change by providing
opportunities for the
development of greater
understanding between the two
sectors.
•Note great interest from Exam
boards.
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9. Structure
•Early evening events so that
staff in each sector could
easily attend without taking
time out of class/lecture
•Introductory talks to set the
scene in the subject area
•Facilitated debates
•Note takers
•381 Attendees: academic
staff, school staff, students,
exam boards, sector agencies
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10. Lecturers
Some key points:
•Their knowledge of secondary curriculum was not
always up to date.
•Changes in the curriculum were not always
identified; e.g. course work, extended writing,
practical skills?
•They did not always know what skills students
would be arriving with, also the degree of
diagnostic testing varied.
•They developed a greater understanding of the
diverse destinations that teachers are dealing with.
• (e.g. some schools send pupils to a Mathematics
Degree maybe once every three years)
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11. Deficiencies
View?
•A perceived skills gap was frequently expressed,
with a view that students were not well-prepared
for their transition to learning in higher education.
•Skills gaps mentioned most often included
• practical skills, mathematical skills, writing skills,
time management, critical thinking and
independent learning.
•Harvey and Drew (2006):
• It is not easy to identify determining factors for
the first-year experience because of the
idiosyncratic way students engaged with it. …The
focus tends to be on first-year students’
deficiencies and how to provide for them rather
than on exploring their individual learning needs
and building on their strengths.
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12. Teachers
Some key points:
•Some were teaching subjects they had not studied
at university, hence limited advice for students on
what it is like to study that subject at tertiary level.
•They identified they would like to know how their
subject is taught at university.
•They felt to some extent cut off from what happens
in higher education.
• They identified that they would like to know more
applications of the topics they were teaching so
that they could make the subject more interesting.
•They identified that they would like to know more
about careers relevant to the discipline.
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13. Recommendations
& Questions
R1: Prioritise the sharing of knowledge across sectors
Introduce yourselves at your table
•Share current practice on how you share information
with the secondary sector and FE
•Do you have well defined mechanisms?
•At what level institutional, faculty, departmental,
individual?
•What information do you (or should you) share?
•What information do you need?
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14. Bridging the gap
•Some universities arrange that secondary school
teachers help teach in the first year at university to
help bridge the gap (e.g. Nottingham)
•Some schools have university lecturers teaching in
the school for preparation (e.g. Edinburgh, St
Andrews)
•Some universities put on lectures for school
teachers so that have a feel for the subject at
university (e.g. Bangor)
•Some universities have summer schools and special
partner arrangements (e.g Newcastle)
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15. Overarching key
themes
•Strategic importance of transition
•STEM student journey
•Student preparedness for transition
•Awareness, communication concerning curricula
•Initiatives to ease transition
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16. STEM student
journey
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
•R2. Facilitate engagement with STEM disciplines
during early educational stages, to improve
students’ understanding and expectations relating
to studying in STEM, and to encourage recruitment
into STEM within higher education
•R3. Develop examples for teaching and
assessment within STEM disciplines that help to
break gender stereotypes, improve inclusivity and
widen participation, and disseminate these
examples and case studies
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17. STEM Degrees
17
Slide Image from BP

18. GENDER
18Acknowledgement: Image from Learning Plus UK

19. Patterns and
Trends in HE,
Universities UK
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20. Design &
Content
20Snapshot of Coventry website: 19.02.15

21. Students
Some Key Points
•They found it difficult after working in a certain way at school
for many years; they had to adjust to a new way of working.
•They experienced a loss of confidence related to mathematics
•They experienced a loss of confidence related to laboratory
skills and/or field work
•They needed to develop coping mechanisms for the
challenges/ failure
•Brings in the notion of resilient learner and/or educational
resilience.
21
C+

22. STEM Student
Journey
RECOMMENDATIONS
•R4. Enhance the quality of first-year undergraduate
teaching in STEM disciplines to introduce more
scaffolded learning opportunities.
•R5. Mathematical and statistical skills should be
supported and facilitated
For scaffolding to be effective :
The task = learners use the developing skills that need
to be mastered.
The task =engaging and interesting to keep learners
involved.
The anticipation of errors = enables the scaffolder to
properly guide the learners away from ineffective
directions and organise development 22

23. Students
Focussed
Activity
Gender Discussion
• To what extent should we address gender bias in
discipline/ curriculum?
• How do we/you or should we/you go about this?
Skills Discussion
• To what extent do HE practitioners expect
students to arrive in HE ready-equipped with
appropriate skills?
• To what extent is it the responsibility of HE
practitioners to up-skill their students?
• What are the implications of the commonly-
discussed view that students need to "unlearn"
their A level learning?
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24. Enhancements
• Reflect upon and plan enhancements to
improve the student transitional experience
through programme design and classroom
practice
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25. Report
Recommendations
•R6 Provide clear signalling to those involved in pre-
tertiary policy and delivery of relevant STEM
subjects, to better inform preparation of students,
•R7 Consider psychosocial interventions and smaller
class sizes to develop students’ confidence and
resilience during transition
•R8 Incorporate authentic assessment, constructive
alignment, and assessment as learning, into
undergraduate STEM curricula
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26. Exceptional
Student
Experience
Prisoner
Passenger
Pioneer

27. The Principles of
Excellence
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P1
• Aim high & make excellence inclusive
P2
• Give students a compass
P3
• Teach the arts of inquiry and innovation
P4
• Engage the big questions
P5
• Connect knowledge with choice and action
P6
• Foster civic, intercultural, ethical learning
P7
• Assess application to complex problems
http://www.aacu.org/leap/principles-of-excellence

28. Give students a
compass

29. High Impact
Educational
Experiences
10 Capstone Courses and Projects
9 Internships
8 Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
7 Diversity/Global Learning
6 Undergraduate Research
5 Collaborative Assignments & Projects
4 Common Intellectual Experiences
3 Learning Communities
2 Writing-Intensive Courses
1 First-Year Seminars & Experiences
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http://reinventioncenter.colostate.edu/the-boyer-report/

30. Questions to
Enhance Practice
What aspects of your programme design and
practice could be enhanced to improve transition?
To what extent is authentic assessment/assessment
as learning seen as helpful for students with regard
to transition, and do you have good practice
examples to share?
Any other enhancements?
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31. Thank You
Thank you for all your useful discussions:
A related project & reports are
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HEA_Mat
hematical-transitions_webv2.pdf
7 discipline reports -
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/disciplines/Maths_Sta
ts_OR/Skills-in-Mathematics-and-Statistics-in-Chemistry
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