Abstract
This paper presents and discusses a student-focussed, small group learning and teaching, and school-wide initiative designed for first year undergraduate students in support of their transition into higher education. The details of the underlying pedagogic strategy, as well as the organisation (small group teaching environment), the content of applied learning and teaching approaches (including assignment and assessment), and the outcomes of the initiative evaluation (including required human resources) based on data collected from five consecutive academic years are presented. This paper aims to serve as an example of a pedagogic approach that facilitates student transition into Higher Education aimed at practitioners, especially those involved in delivery and/or those who are engaged or responsible for undergraduate curricula development. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for curricular changes to support students’ engagement at this early stage of their university career.
Highlights
First-year undergraduate students face challenging times during their first few months at university owing to the rapid and radical lifestyle changes as well as new academic demands
This paper presents and discusses a student-focussed, small group learning and teaching, and school-wide initiative designed for first year undergraduate students in support of their transition into higher education
This paper aims to serve as an example of a pedagogic approach that facilitates student transition into Higher Education aimed at practitioners, especially those involved in delivery and/or those who are engaged or responsible for undergraduate curricula development
Summary
First-year undergraduate students face challenging times during their first few months at university owing to the rapid and radical lifestyle changes as well as new academic demands. The curricula of the individual programmes are designed according to the programmes learning objectives, in semester 1 of the first year the majority of first year students are required to study three common modules (units of delivery) in Introductory chemistry, Human physiology and Biostatistics. These are taught in large class settings of >150+ students. The inclusion of the skills tutorial sessions into the undergraduate programmes curricula meant that the context of the sessions was translated, into the learning objectives (LOs) specific for each degree programme involved, which in turn was appropriately assessed (according to the standards of the higher education provider and national quality standards; for info see UK Quality Code for Higher Education). The LOs were not specific to a given subject of study; and may be applicable to other first year curricula elsewhere
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