Journal of the Foundation Year Network

Editorial

Doug Ingram, Sarah Hale, Peter Watts — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 18:40:10 +0000

Brief introduction to volume 5 from the editors, Doug Ingram (Lead Editor), Sarah Hale and Peter Watts

Engaging with Communities: Making Higher Education Accessible to Non-standard Entrants of the Past, Present and Future

Pushpa Kumbhat — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:44:04 +0000

The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding (the Augar Report) states that the purpose of post-18 education is to ‘promote citizens’ ability to realise their full potential economically and more broadly’. However, the Report identifies that ‘the longer-employment outcomes for disadvantaged students remain disappointing and there are regional gaps in access to tertiary education.’ In addition, it observes that the ‘numbers undertaking adult education and part-time study have fallen at all levels.’ Foundation years currently operate to address these issues. They aim to widen access to, and participation in, higher education for mature students and/or those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The agenda for widening participation is not new and has a long history. This article will take a ‘long view’ of the movement to widen participation by taking account of historical precursors, namely adult education organisations, to foundation years. It will use historical evidence and information on the current state of post-18 education to explain the social, economic and policy backgrounds in which foundation years currently operate. Using the evidence, it will suggest that stronger collaborations between universities and adult education organisations have potential to support the agenda more effectively for widening participation in higher education.

Developing a Community of Learning through the 4 Cs Model: Context, Contingency, Collaborative Learning and Contribution

Dawn Whitton, David Stoten — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:01:04 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered change in the ways universities approach teaching and learning. In many respects, much of the change that has taken place in the past few years was already in place but accelerated by the exigencies of the emergency. In particular, digital technology has been viewed by many within Higher Education as a pragmatic way of delivering the curriculum to students. Such a view fails to appreciate the opportunities presented not just using digital technology but also through new approaches to teaching and learning and the empowerment of students as learners. This paper reports on a Foundation Programme in Business and Management that sought to develop a student-driven community of learning through the use of digital technology. The application of Flipgrid, Padlet and Google Slides engaged students in an exercise that built community identity and a sense of belonging whilst developing new skills. This paper summarises this approach in terms of the 4 Cs model of Context, Contingency, Collaborative learning, and Contribution.

Creating Communities of Learning via Academic Support: Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians Don't Just 'Do' Equations

Carol Spencely, Lewis A. Baker, Alison M. Taylor — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Academic and mathematical skills development is built into the curriculum in all modules on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Foundation Year programme at a university in England, with all teaching team members involved including our Lecturer in Learning Development. Two specific academic support initiatives are outlined in this paper to provide a small-scale case study of approaches to developing learning communities. The first is a ‘Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme’ which involves the mentoring of groups of students by a previous Foundation Year student. The second is the ‘Engineering Business Case’ involving a group design project with a financial incentive supported by the Engineers in Business competition. In both cases, the student voice, through the lens of creating communities of learning, was sought through questionnaires. There are indications that both mentees and mentors reported benefits in terms of learning and development and engaging with other students in their participation with the Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme. For the Engineering Business Case a contrasting view was seen: whilst the students agree that components of this project were valuable for their learning and/or future studies, meeting new people, and developing strategies for group work, there were mixed responses about whether the project helped them to feel part of the student community. The data evaluated in this work do not lend themselves to any generalisations. Rather, we seek to report on the framework and implementation of these schemes which, as they mature, will lend themselves to more quantitative and qualitative data collection for interpretation.

Directive Resources in Promoting Student Confidence and Communication Skills in Team-Based Learning

Samantha Davenward — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:50:26 +0000

Team-based learning (TBL) is becoming more popular within active learning environments as its collaborative nature is deemed beneficial for promoting deep learning experiences. However, this is only effective when students fully engage in the discussions. In TBL sessions we conducted, although students appeared generally to be engaged, it was noticed that the overall discussions were often limited, which negates the collaborative nature of TBL and does not provide the supportive environment needed to promote learning. This prompted pedagogic research in how to enhance the level of discussion occurring within the teams during TBL sessions. It was deduced that students may not fully appreciate the expectations of participating collaboratively within a group, which prompted the provision of directive resources to promote students’ confidence and enhance the depth of discussions. The directive resources provoked some positive changes in students’ behaviours and confidence within discussions. Recommendations that have emerged from this project relate to providing more guidance on discussions and group collaborations, and the allocation of team roles. However, wider recruitment and longitudinal studies are now needed to confirm the extent of the benefits.

Applying Social Justice Principles to a Peer Mentoring Scheme for Foundation Students

Christina Delistathi — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:51:48 +0000

This paper explores the application of social justice principles as cornerstones in the design and planning of a peer mentoring scheme for foundation students at an English university aimed at assisting transition to HE and at fostering belonging to university. Starting from the specific needs of students and institutional priorities, it provides examples of how the social justice principles of a) meeting student needs, b) equity and c) participation in a safe community can be strategically operationalised to support students. They have been applied in relation to the scope of the scheme; to removing barriers that inhibit scheme membership and support the dissemination of participant knowledge; and to the processes and partnerships between groups that sustain the scheme and help create a safe community. The discussion extends our understanding of the contexts of application of social justice principles. It is hoped that it can be useful to other mentoring schemes and initiatives to support students and, more broadly, to advance the social justice agenda.

‘Money, Money, Money.’ Uncovering What ‘Value’ Means to a Group of Foundation Year Learners in Higher Education using Focus Groups

Marie Clifford — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:52:52 +0000

Value for money is a term that has been, and continues to be, applied to Higher Education in the UK. Universities are expected to justify the quality of their provision, and student attainment and outcomes in relation to the cost of the course. Foundation Year courses have been targeted by UK administrations in terms of the value they provide. The aim of this paper is to investigate how value is understood by students, focusing on those studying in foundation year programmes. Using focus groups with 17 foundation year students in various disciplines, what the students gained from their study was analysed thematically. This led to four key themes and one overarching theme being identified: 1) becoming a HE student, 2) supportive environment, 3) transitions to HE, and 4) financial benefits, with the overarching theme of finding a sense of self. The findings oppose the commonly held view that the financial cost of education is a negative concern for students. The implications of these findings include the need to design a measure of value for money that considers and includes the student experience rather than the presumptions of policymakers. They also raise a question about how the data can be utilised to provide more tailored support and information for non-traditional learners considering university.

Combining Blended Learning with Role Play in an Online Simulation of the Bletchley Park Enigma Codebreakers in WWII

Adam J. Wootton, Jeff T. Neat — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:53:50 +0000

The foundation year programme at this English university prepares Mathematics and Computer Science students for their degree with a range of different subject-specific modules. One of these (Logic, Codes and Cryptography) introduces students to the concepts of mathematical logic, set theory, permutations and cryptography. Our approach delivers what might typically be a complex and dry topic by instead immersing students in an online role play simulation. By using discrete online videos, research notes, national archive records, and online applications, students follow the path of a WWII Enigma machine encoded message from the point of its creation through to the application of cryptographical techniques at Bletchley Park and analysis into ULTRA Intelligence. These resources are linked together with formative and summative assessment using the LearningPool e-learning platform and MS Forms, combining blended learning with role play. As the module progresses, skills are developed by placing the students in the position of operators at various stages of the decryption process, such as interceptors, traffic analysts and hut 6 crib identifiers. The onus is placed on the students to develop their understanding with the support of scaffolded learning. This self-direction is encouraged by the blended learning approach: LearningPool synthesises new content with existing online resources, such as Enigma simulators and living history. As such, students are encouraged to explore and discover more complex resources for themselves, fostering deeper learning and helping students to hone the study skills that they will use throughout their studies and beyond.

Co-creation, Gamification and Motivation

Amy Stickels, Anna Tranter — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:54:57 +0000

Gamification and co-creation are increasingly popular pedagogies in undergraduate studies. Gamification works on the basis that learners engage more when they are having fun. However, much of this is controlled by the teacher, who designs and manages the experience – but what learning can be gained from handing over control to the students through co-creation? Throughout the academic year 2021-22, Business and Philosophy foundation year students studying on the International Foundation Programme at an English university were challenged to write and take part in recap quizzes using Kahoot! following asynchronous lectures. This paper discusses the use of this quizzing technology in the classroom and explores how empowering students to co-create has a motivational benefit, according to Self Determination Theory (SDT), as well as a deep learning benefit for students, and additionally enables teachers to check understanding.

A Lockdown Curriculum for Arts and Humanities Foundation Year

David A. Ibitson, Madeleine Newman — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:55:59 +0000

Learning in lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, refocused Arts and Humanities Foundation Year encounters with histories, theories and cultural works. This paper outlines the concept of a lockdown curriculum as a strategy for innovating curriculum design and pedagogy within an interdisciplinary foundation year. It sets out a case study of how this thematic framework was developed to facilitate the redesign of the ‘Modernity and Post-Modernity’ module on the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year in the Lifelong Learning Centre at an English university from 2020 onwards. It explores how new and refreshed perspectives on the past and present supported learners from widening participation backgrounds to undertake a journey through module contexts and the development of working definitions of complex cultural concepts like Modernity and Post-Modernity whilst living through lockdown. The paper reflects on how our changed lived experience reshaped encounters with cultural works as historical documents and offered new scope for supporting the development of interdisciplinary criticality at Level 0. In turn, it considers what we have learnt about our strategies to engage with real-world events in our teaching in the Arts and Humanities.

4 Is: A Conceptual Framework to Drive Curriculum Development in Transnational Foundation Years in Mainland China

Mattia Miani, Miao Wang, Shih-Ching (Susan) Picucci-Huang — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, the authors aim to propose a conceptual framework based on four principles - integration, inspirational teaching, inclusiveness, and innovation - named the 4 Is. The framework, developed through reflective practice, addresses the current literature gap on curriculum development in foundation years and a number of challenges faced by foundation programmes in transnational universities in China. The framework is presented both in narrative and visual forms, the latter taking the shape of a dandelion flower to signify the non-hierarchical and flexible nature of the dimensions characterising each principle. The authors will discuss examples of curriculum changes inspired by the framework that they carried out in a foundation year in a transnational campus in Mainland China.

What Barriers Prevent Foundation Year Students from Attending Academic Support Sessions and How Might These be Overcome?

Samuel Dougherty — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:58:28 +0000

Engaging students at all levels of Higher Education (HE) study with the different aspects of university life is vital to ensure they can get the most out of their time at university. One crucial area that underpins success at university is mastery of academic skills, such as assignment planning and critical thinking, and engaging students with this throughout their time at university must be considered a priority. This study puts into context engagement from Foundation Year (FY) students with taught skills sessions, and draws upon the views of both FY students and staff in order to make pragmatic suggestions for ways that practice may be improved to become more inclusive and promote student engagement with academic skills sessions and resources. Online questionnaires were sent to all FY students and teaching staff at the university in order to gather both quantitative and qualitative data in relation to student engagement with academic skills support. Results highlighted the need for greater visibility of the Skills Centre for students to be more aware of the sessions and resources on offer. The research contributes to the wider understanding about how to further engage FY students and makes recommendations about how engagement may be improved.

The Tensions Between Us: Using Reflective Practice to Explore Community-led Outreach versus Academic-led Outreach

Charlie Williams — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:59:28 +0000

When I taught issues of social justice, we struggled, as a class, to find ways to make a difference. Scenarios we played out would help with reform or social change but would never get to the crux of the problem – prevention. As an academic, I love teaching, but beyond that, I want to empower others to enact change. I often feel that my knowledge and experience would be useful to those who chose a different subject, or even path than university. My decision to move into outreach stems from those discussions I had with students; social justice needs to be introduced at a young age. Now I plan outreach programmes, I reflect: What if issues of social justice, were taught by universities? How do we tailor this to the needs of the local community? The want to have communities involved and even leading in the outreach planning is not without tension. My research working with Indigenous communities led me to question: Who has authority to speak for the community? How do you allow for intersectionality of ideas within communities? This article uses Rolfe et al. (2001) reflective practice methods to explore the ten-sions between community-led outreach and academic-led outreach.