Pairs Talk 22 Jan 08 Jane Seale

P articipatory A pproaches to I nclusion R elated S taff Development (PAIRS) Dr Jane Seale, School of Education, University of Southampton

Overview
Provide an overview of a current LATEU funded project that is using participatory approaches to involve students in evaluation of learning experiences and learning provision
Give examples of the kind of evaluation information obtained using the participatory methods
Reflect on how methods might be used by other colleagues, Schools, Faculties

Why the “inclusion” focus?
Inclusion Task Force recommendation to University that was incorporated into the Disability Equality Scheme- “Action Plan”
The need to involve students in the design and delivery of staff development and CPD opportunities in relation to developing inclusive teaching practices
LATEU: wanted a project that focused on how we can “include” a wide range of students (i.e. not just disabled students) in the learning opportunities that we provide

Defining “Participatory”
Working directly with students in the evaluation of their learning experiences and development of staff development materials
Student input sought throughout the evaluation project
Early and continual participation of intended users (students) to produce improved teaching practices

Defining “ Participatory”
Aims to engage participants in the design, conduct and analysis of “research” with the construction of non-hierarchical research relations
Participants encouraged to own the outcome by setting the goals and sharing in decisions about processes
“Nothing about me, without me”

Participatory approaches: related concepts
Alliances and partnerships
Advocacy
Inclusion
Ownership
Co-operation
Mutual learning
learning about one another- reflexivity
Activity (as opposed to passivity)
Respect (for all collaborators)

Provenance of method
Participatory Design: HCI, Engineering, Art & Design
Participatory Research: Disability, Inclusion
E.g. 2 funded research projects Jane Seale involved in: LEXDIS & Concepts of Access
Higher Education: emergent focus on “Hearing the Student Voice”

PAIRS: Aims
Capture “student voices” regarding their learning experiences within the School of Education
Use these “voices” to explore whether and how our School of Education programmes (undergraduate and postgraduate) include or exclude students with a wide range of learning needs from experiencing positive or high quality learning opportunities
2. Involve students in the analysis and exploration of these “student voices”
Develop a collaborative partnership whereby students help to develop materials and methods that can be used to help staff in the work towards meeting learning needs and reducing barriers to inclusion.

Phase One: Tell us your “stories”
Write or audio-record a one-two page letter to an “imaginary” friend
Write a diary describing learning experiences on course, over the period of a “typical” week;
Write a reflective journal that describes a “critical incident”
Produce a piece of creative writing or art (e.g. poem, picture, sculpture, song)
Alternatively, opt to be interviewed face-to-face, by phone or by webcam.
Focus for all stories: learning experiences and whether learning needs have been met

Phase Two: help us understand the stories
Formed an advisory group that worked together to decide how we will use the information about student learning experiences to design staff development initiatives in the School.

Ethics
Ethical approval from SOE Ethics committee
Main ethical issues
Payment for participation (vouchers)
Anonymity
Participant approval of edited/anonymised stories prior to use

Recruitment
Email
Blackboard announcements
Personal presentation in lectures
Different programmes/students responded differently to each method
Personal presentation worked well for UG, Fnd Degree and PGCE (groups I knew less well) ..time consuming…
Email worked well for PGR (a group I work closely with)
Blackboard worked well for PGT
Targeted all programme leaders as gate-keepers
Also informed Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator & Chair of Academic Standards and Quality Committee

Recruitment
20 in Phase 1
5 in Phase 2
9 students enquired about the project but when sent information sheets/consent forms did not follow through

Phase 1: Participant demographics 5 Male and 15 Female Participants 6 PGR 3 PGT 5 PGCE 2 Undergraduate Degree 4 Foundation Degree

Phase 1: Participant Demographics 9 Part time student 3 International student 6 Non Traditional route 5 Traditional route to uni 0 Ethnicity 4 Family/Caring commitments 1 Disability

Phase 1: Chosen methods for providing stories
Letter to friend- 6
Face-to-face interview- 6
Reflective Journal/Diary- 5
Phone interview- 3
Did not anticipate the preference for being interviewed (time consuming transcribing)
Some participants incorporated work from their course e.g. reflective elements from assessed assignments

Phase 1: The “stories”
Examples
Fnd Degree: Reflective journal
UG: Interview
PGCE: Letter to a friend
PGT: Interview
PGR: Reflective journal
Positive and negative feedback
Variance in detail and “passion”

Phase 2: The analysis
5 students (also phase 1 participants) consented to being members of an “advisory board”
Work and family commitments as well as distance (1 student had graduated) meant that all work done via email
Sent each participant three stories and asked them to code stories for themes or issues that they thought were significant

“ Themes” that have implications for staff development
THINGS THAT HELPED LEARNING
Supportive tutors
Knowledgeable and expert tutors
Flexibility (choice, options, variety)
Sharing and communicating with peers (peer support)
THINGS THAT HINDERED LEARNING
Workload issues
Lack of information
Poor communication
Issues around essay writing skills and support

Have we learnt anything about inclusion?
Participants did not explicitly use words (or associated ones) such as “I felt included or excluded”…
Some themes do reflect practices that we might obviously associate with inclusive teaching
issues related to communication and peer support (e.g. isolation, belonging)
Flexibility is a key principle of inclusive teaching

Chosen methods for dissemination
Write a brief summary report which includes advice and guidelines along with a CD with all the stories on for people to access in their own time
Set up a wiki which contains the stories, our comments and provides opportunity for staff and students to discuss issues raised etc.
Give a presentation (Jane plus any PAIRS participant who are happy to co-present) on the issues raised and film the presentation and ensuing discussion so that it can be included in the wiki and on the CD perhaps

What motivated the students to take part?
Some had “bees in their bonnet” about particular issues (good and bad)
Supportive tutors in a crisis
Change in space allocation for PhD students
Placement not enabling learning outcomes to be met
Some students appearing to get away with missing deadlines

What motivated the students to take part?
For some, it was a curiosity about the methods of the project- wanting to learn from the way it was done
For some it was a chance to have their voice heard
Not a lot of evidence to suggest that “payment” alone was a sole driver for participation
Oiled the wheels and demonstrated commitment on part of evaluator

Some informal student comments
“ I was genuinely impressed with the project methodology that you used for this research. Would it be at all possible for me to reference your work officially within my own EdD work? I would sincerely appreciate being able to reflect on your methodology within my thesis as many aspects of it fit brilliantly with the ideas that I have so far myself. Would this be possible? …I believe it is important to not ask participants in research to do anything that I would not feel comfortable doing myself. I particularly enjoyed being a part of your project and this taught me many things about carrying out my own research upon/with others.”

Some informal student comments
Although my schedule is quite busy as you know, I am really interested in taking part of the second phase. It is the kind of experiences and skills that I want to have. I did not come here just to get a PhD and then go back. I want to be involved in any research or courses that might help to improve my educational and research skills.
It is my pleasure to help you in this project. It opens my mind to many things that may help to improve the organization that I will return to, when I finish my PhD.

What motivates colleagues to facilitate access to students?
One colleague used the information sheets that I handed out as an example of good practice in their research methods teaching
Obtain evaluation data that can use for a variety of QA purposes to illustrate authoritatively, the “student voice”

Lessons Learned: Applying PAIRS method to other Schools
Get richer information from motivated, committed students
Time consuming: not a “one-person” project
Don’t underestimate the ethical considerations
Anonymity (of participants AND the teachers they name in their stories)
Build in time to “train/induct” participants in analysis methods- I underestimated how hard participants might find this, and how varied their results would be
Probably best used to explore one big issue across a School or programme once a year or so
Not a replacement for module evaluations, not pragmatic and students will get just as fed up with it as they are with questionnaires

Mixed Methods?
In educational research there is debate about the value of “mixed methods” e.g. quantitative and qualitative
In educational (teaching) evaluation there is also value in mixed methods: depth and breadth
Where participatory methods give us the depth
Questionnaire surveys gives us the breadth

Discussion and Questions

References
LEXDIS: Disabled Learners Experiences of E-Learning- JISC funded project
http:// www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk /
Concepts of Access for people with learning disabilities: ESRC funded seminar series
http:// www.education.soton.ac.uk/research/field_projects/?link = project_details.php&id =174
“ Hearing the Student Voice”- Escalate funded project
http://www2.napier.ac.uk/studentvoices/

Pairs Talk 22 Jan 08 Jane Seale

by Jane65 on Jan 21, 2008

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Pairs Talk 22 Jan 08 Jane Seale — Presentation Transcript