Embedding learning development; a model for collaborative practice

Laura Minogue,Carole Murphy,Kim Salmons

doi:10.47408/jldhe.v0i13.443

Abstract

In 2016, the Learning Development Team at St Mary’s University was awarded a prize for teaching excellence for its report on 'the collaborative delivery of embedded academic skills development programmes within subject modules’. The report detailed the planning and delivery of embedded activities across Schools in which academic skills were tailored to subject specific module content. The success of the report resulted in long-term investment in the Learning Development Team and positioned embedded academic learning as an integral part of the university’s corporate plan. This paper presents the results of a small-scale research study to evaluate an embedded academic skills module in Criminology and Sociology delivered at Level 4. The impact of this embedded module has been measured through semi-structured interviews with students, the subject lecturer and learning development lecturer. The final self-evaluation assessment was also analysed to understand more fully how students had developed over the course of the module. Results clearly demonstrate that embedding academic skills into the Criminology and Sociology programme had an impact on student confidence, belonging and retention. The outcome is an 'impact-tested' accredited skills module that can be adapted and used by other learning development teams.

Highlights

As Wingate has identified, university cohorts have changed significantly since the early 1990s ‘with a larger share of students from non-traditional backgrounds’ (2006, p.457)
This paper presents an embedded skills module designed and delivered through a successful partnership between learning development and the subject specialist lecturers (Criminology and Sociology)
The study skills module was evaluated through semi-structured interviews with the students, an interview with both the subject lecturer and learning development lecturer and analysis of the self-evaluation assessment

Summary

Introduction

As Wingate has identified, university cohorts have changed significantly since the early 1990s ‘with a larger share of students from non-traditional backgrounds’ (2006, p.457). Many of these students feel unprepared for higher education and do not perceive themselves to have the appropriate skills for success (Gamache, 2002; Haggis, 2006). Universities have attempted to accommodate these students by providing study skills as separate bolt-on sessions; the ‘deficit’ model These sessions, which are often drop-in or extra-curricular, have proved ineffective as they separate study skills from the process and content of learning (Wingate, 2006). Making these sessions extra-curricular tends to position study skills as a remedial activity for referred students who are ‘failing’ (Cottrell, 2001, p.40)

Methods

Results

Conclusion