The Student Voice

The Student Voice What students are saying about their learning experiences
Andy Coverdale
Claire Mann
Odessa Petit dit Dariel
www .visual learning lab. ac.uk

Presentation outline
Part 1 : Background & context
Process: PAR - Participatory Action Research
Output: Video of the student voice
Outcome: Video workshops w/ staff - iterative cycles
Part 2 : PAR - the methodology & the VLL project
Foundations: Participation, Action, Research
Cycles & Stages
Part 3 : the Video
Staff workshops
Future developments

Background & Context
Theme 2: Challenges in HE
Digitisation of education
Student as consumer – empowered
Student feedback & assessment
HEFCE - students to take a central role in quality assessment & feedback in QAA

Process: Researching the ‘Student Voice’
Not a unique concept:
JISC “In their own words” (3rd party)
VLL: student interns as researchers
Nature & development of research = PAR

Output: SFG & video development
SFG around the university
What is visual learning?
What have been your best & worst learning experiences
Transcribed & coded in Nvivo
Video developed using students’ voice

Outcomes: Feedback Loop
Education Pilot
Vet School
Classics

Participatory Action Research (PAR)
"Research which involves all relevant parties in actively examining together current problematic situation in order to change and improve it. They do this by critically reflecting on the historical, political, cultural, economic, geographic and other contexts which makes sense of it."
(Wadsworth, 1998)

History of PAR
Psychology, social and educational research
Action Research (Kurt Lewin) - Action / reflection cycle
Participatory dimensions – critical, social and educational

PAR: Participation
Research Parties (Wadsworth, 1998)
The researcher(s) , the researched, and the researched for
Authentic Participation
Empowering and emancipatory
Democratic and non-coercive
Collective Self-reflective Enquiry
Record, collect and analyse reactions and feedback

PAR: Action
Not end product!
Affect positive change – improvement / reproduction
Critical Inquiry
Circumstances, actions and consequences
Political process – wider contexts
Resistance to change (participants and others)

PAR: Research
Start Small!
Small cycles and groups (McTaggart, 1989)
Manageable, controllable and realistic
Bottom-up approach

Cyclical Model
Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)
4 ‘Moments’ of Action Research
“ Self-critical communities of people participating and collaborating in the research processes of planning , acting , observing and reflecting .”
(McTaggart, 1989)
Interdependent and cyclical

Stages of PAR
Action-reflection cycles occur through a number of stages
Granularity
Action and reflection determined by scale
Cycles within cycles
Stages and cycles can overlap and take place simultaneously

Preliminary Stage
PLAN
Student interns as researchers
ACT
VLL core team engaged with student interns
OBSERVE
Identify relevant learner issues
REFLECT
Role of student interns - unique position

Stage One: Student Focus Groups
PLAN
Empowering / promoting the student voice
ACT
Conducting and analysing student focus groups
OBSERVE
Key themes / categories emerged from the data
REFLECT
Roles as ‘students as researchers’

Coding: Themes and Categories
Learning Contexts
Lectures
Small Groupwork / Seminars
Other (inc. Online, Field, Lab Work)
Themes / Categories
Interactivity and Engagement
Personalised Learning Self-directed Learning and Student Choice
Visuality and Multimodality
Technologies
Teaching Styles, Competencies and Training

Stage Two: Video Workshops
PLAN
Disseminating findings to practitioners
ACT
Designing and presenting video workshops
OBSERVE
Record feedback from practitioners
REFLECT
Ongoing discussion

Stage Three: Wider Dissemination
PLAN
Disseminating to external audiences
ACT
Presenting at the SRHE Conference
OBSERVE
What’s happening here!
REFLECT
Reflect with other student interns

Stage Four: Future Development
PLAN
Disseminating to a wider internal audience
ACT
Planning to present to PGCHE and MA(Ed.) students
OBSERVE REFLECT

References
Hughes, I. & Seymour-Rolls, K. (2000). Participatory Action Research: Getting the Job Done. Action Research E-Reports, 4. http://www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/arow/arer/004.htm
Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R., Eds. (1988). The Action Research Planner. 3rd Edition. Victoria: Deakin University.
McTaggart, R. (1989). 16 Tenets of Participatory Action Research. The Third World Encounter on Participatory Research. Managua, Nicaragua. September 3-9. http://www.caledonia.org.uk/par.htm
Wadsworth, Y. (1998). What is Participatory Action Research? Action Research International, Paper 2. http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/ari/pywadsworth98.html

The Student Voice

by Andy Coverdale

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