TACKLING TRANSITION IN STEMDr Janet De Wilde

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

Bridging the gap

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SecondarySystem

TertiarySystem

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

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

Bridging the gap

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TertiarySystem

SecondarySystem

STEM Colleagues

•Biological Sciences

•Built Environment

•Computing

•Engineering•Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

•Mathematics, Statistics & OR•Physical Sciences•Psychology

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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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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LecturersSome 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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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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TeachersSome 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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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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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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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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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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STEM Degrees

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Slide Image from BP

GENDER

18Acknowledgement: Image from Learning Plus UK

Patterns and Trends in HE, Universities UK

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Design & Content

20Snapshot of Coventry website: 19.02.15

StudentsSome 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.

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C+

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

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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Enhancements

• Reflect upon and plan enhancements to improve the student transitional experience through programme design and classroom practice

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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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Exceptional Student Experience

Prisoner

Passenger

Pioneer

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

Give students a compass

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/

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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Thank You

Thank you for all your useful discussions:

A related project & reports are

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HEA_Mathematical-transitions_webv2.pdf

7 discipline reports -

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/disciplines/Maths_Stats_OR/Skills-in-Mathematics-and-Statistics-in-Chemistry

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