Reflections on learning: widening capability and the student experience

This paper is obliquely linked to my interests but does have some useful information and links. It discusses some theories which may be of relevance in my analysis stages. The social context at the beginning is also useful to help me understand the greater picture. I was drawn in by the title, with 'widening capability' - I initially believed this was to do with widening participation. The link is certainly there, exploring methods of assessment which acknowledge the life experiences of those students from a non-traditional background, but it is more to do with developing skills through this acknowledgement.

Summary: Useful background, some further reading to explore.

Garratt, D. (2011). Reflections on learning:  widening capability and the student experience. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(2), 211-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2011.572866

Social Context

There has been rapid and unprecedented expansion of HE in the UK (David, 2010) with an increase in students from non-traditional backgrounds entering HE. Garratt draws attention to the theme of increasing diversity and looks at the implications for learning and teaching, to produce a more socially just pedagogy.

Crozier et al. (2008) suggest that the discourse of WP only involves the 'desire to participate' rather than affecting change in the 'ability to participate' once the students have entered HE. Walker (2008) invokes the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (2007) who believe that within the UK, HE is not fully promoting equality.

Garratt's research question is: "How can HE programmes widen 'capability' by encouraging student reflection on learning and personal knowledge and further recognise the outcomes in order to develop a more inclusive pedagogy, integrating formal and informal learning?"

Methodology and data sources

Garratt identifies the participants, states that it is a qualitative account, with vignettes taken from student learning logs. The study is a post-hoc rationalisation (Hockings et al, 2010). Garratt goes over the ethics process and suggests that the study was done as it was for heuristic reasons. For my own info: heuristic: method not guaranteed to be optimal but sufficient for the immediate goals. Garratt used a hermeneutic approach, moving between theory and data, to find "warrantable understandings" (Ivanic et al., 2007) - illuminating and capable of inference, rather than seeking 'truth'.

Learning log - discussion of the student assessment

Theoretical framework

Sen (1992, 1999) discusses notions of equality in learning, closely linked with the concept of 'capabilities'. Capabilities are the opportunities given to individuals to enable them to realise their potential.

The space between an individual's 'internal capabilities' (Nussbaum, 2000) and 'functionings' (realisation of measurable outcomes) is mediated by the external environment. Bourdieu's  concepts of 'habitus' and 'cultural capital' help demonstrate how students have varying levels of accessibility to particular forms of high status knowledge, based on prior learning experiences and dispositions (Crozier et al, 2010). Crozier et al (2010) suggest that there is a disjunction between the habitus of students from non-traditional backgrounds and the unfamiliar field of experience at university.

Garratt uses Critical Race Theory to analyse the vignettes, using rich data to explore the 'warrantable understandings' drawn from the work.

Widening capability in student experience

Students telling their own stories in accordance with freedoms they have reason to value, the learning task provided opportunity to widen 'capability' and allow students to participate more confidently in their learning.

Hockings et al (2010) "students value teaching that recognises their individual academic and social identities and that addresses their particular learning needs".

Bates (2007): productive pedagogies that seek to develop a capability approach and further the course of social justice in education often usefully possess the following characteristics:...... Intellectual quality - development of higher order thinking.....

Further reading:

Bates (2007) Developing capabilities and the management of trust. In Walker & Unterhalter (eds) Amartya Sen's capability approach and social justice in education.

Crozier, Reay, Clayton, Colliander, Grinstead (2008) Different strokes for different folks: diverse students in diverse institutions - experiences of higher education

Crozier, Reay, & Clayton (2010) The socio-cultural and learning experiences of working-class students in higher education. In David (below).

David M. (Ed.) (2010) Improving learning by widening participation in higher education

Hockings, Cooke & Bowl (2010) Learning and teaching in two universities within the context of increasing student diversity: Complexity, contradictions and challenges. In David's book above

Ivanic, Edwards, Satchwell and Smith (2007).  Possibilities for pedagogy in further education: harnessing the abundance of literacy.

Nussbaum (2000) Women and human development: the capabilities approach

Sen (1992) Inequality re-examined

Sen (1999) Development as freedom

Walker (2008) Widening participation, widening capability

Research on the transition from vocational education and training to higher education

Dunbar-Goddet, H. & Ertl, H. (2007). Research on the transition from vocational education and training to higher education. Degrees of Success Working Paper 1.

This paper discusses the method used in the previous paper I looked at. It has some useful information to consider, relating to questions. It also makes me realise that everything seems to have been done before. After all, this paper is 8 years old.

Context: The current debate on WP in HE in relation to VET needs to consider two issues:
1. The increase in participation in post-compulsory education;
2. Issues of parity of VQs and 'academic' qualifications (i.e. A levels).

Despite the expansion in the HE sector, the greatest levels of growth are seen in students from the traditional source, that is middle class backgrounds who have entered HE with traditional A level qualifications. A substantial increase in VQs in secondary education has not opened the doors to an equality of access to HE. There is tracking of VET students to less prestigious HEIs.

Government policy under New Labour was to improve the perceived academic value of VQs. The authors found a gap in the knowledge about transition from level three VQs to HE and whether increasing participation in VET has led to widened participation in HE.

Project overview: large scale data analysis and some more in depth interviews, both of students and tutors.

Research design: A variety of questions, including "To what extent are students in VQs prepared fro studies in HE?" "What mechanisms are in place to remedy any lack of preparation?"

Since the 1970s arrange of questionnaires have been used to measure how students approach study in HE (Richardson, 2000). See: Approaches to Studying Inventory, Learning and Studying Questionnaire. See also Ertl, Hayward et al., 2007: The student learning experience in higher education literature review report for the HEA

See also: Christie et al. (2006) From college to university: Looking backwards, looking forwards.

The research had not only a question on preparedness for HE but also on unpreparedness. I would also need to consider asking questions about parental education and whether or not they were first generation HE. Other questions could cover the main challenges they find in academic skills, and how they overcome them., and what their expectations were about academic study at HE and how they thought it would differ from FE. The links above can help me formulate my questions. See p. 28 of article for the questions they used.

They start off with gentle questions such as "Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, for example can you describe the qualifications you obtained before coming into higher education?", "What subject did you study?", "Before you came to university, how well did you think your qualification prepared you for further study?" "Now you've been at university for a while, how well do you now think your vocational qualification prepared you for study at university?"

I need to think around these questions, and then think about what questions I can ask that will help me to answer *my* specific research question. It will be important to make sure we both understand what we mean by academic skills as this is what I'm interested in, rather than general differences between college and HE.

The transition from vocational education and training to higher education: a successful pathway?

Hoelscher, M., Hayward, G., Ertl, H., & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2008). The transition from vocational education and training to higher education: a successful pathway? Research Papers in education, 23(2), 139-151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02671520802048679

This is an interesting paper as it briefly mentions something my tutor discussed and which I didn't really pick up on: post-hoc rationalisation of decision-making.

Because of the fragmentation of research, access to HE is considered a troublesome area. There is a policy aim to increase access to higher education through the vocational education and training (VET) route but the authors state that there has been little research into how effective these policies have been nor on the types of HEIs that VET students typically access.

Descriptive analysis: where/how individuals with differing prior educational backgrounds participate in HE.

Rationale: New Labour's social policy was the indivisibility of economic efficiency and social justice. Tony Blair said that employees should be equipped with the skills to help them prosper in the workforce. Therefore, the State’s role is ensuring provision of adequate opportunities to develop human capital.
There is a belief that more diverse educational opportunities beyond age 16 would lead to increasing and widening participation in HE. This produces both individual and social returns on investment.
There has been a large increase in participation in full time education beyond 16 (Hayward, 2006), not least due to the increase in level 3 vocational qualifications. These are marketed as a means of progressing to HE, and so widening participation. However, research has shown that this link is not strong. Research by Pugsley (2004) suggests that some vocational qualifications provide minimal opportunity for progression. Therefore there is room to consider whether the increase in participation in VET has increased participation of those from a VET background in HE.

Data sources: The authors used large scale administrative datasets, which were supplemented by case studies at five HEIs.

TO LOOK UP: Dunbar-Goddet and Ertl (2007) outline the theoretical framework and research questions and ibid. (2008) a detailed description of the questionnaire data.

Large scale datasets: The authors define five different types of prior education pathways: general academic; vocational; general academic and vocational; foundation and access courses, and not level three/not known. Perhaps I should consider using this definition? The authors discuss the problem of defining vocational education in the UK – this is also something I need to discuss. They choose a pragmatic, rather than a conceptual, definition. For a more in depth study, a consideration of the characteristics of vocational qualifications would be needed.

Case study data: Two surveys were undertaken with the entire intake of students in three subject areas (business, nursing and computing) at 5 HEIs, for the 06-07 academic year. Interviews with 40 students provided insights into rationales for choosing both HEI and subject. The authors mention the fact of post hoc rationalisation of the students’ decisions will take place and mention Hall (2001).
Hall, however, refers to Thomas, Adams and Birchenough’s study from 1996 “Student withdrawal from higher education”, where they state: “data collected through post-hoc student surveys must be treated with caution as it may reflect socially acceptable rationalisations of what actually happened”.

Distribution of students over institutions and subjects: Both institution and subject choice are influenced by a range of factors such as personal interests, social or ethnic background, social capital, etc. They are also influenced by prior attainment, such as educational background.

Institutional choices: HE students in FE were not analysed. There was an unequal distribution of students from different educational backgrounds in different HEI types. Only 13.5% of VET students were at pre-’92 institutions. VET students went to HEIs with the lowest RAE results; therefore, the authors suggest, A levels are the major route into more prestigious HEIs. It is possible that the students are what the authors call “tracked” into these less prestigious JEIs or track themselves into these HEIs.
Interviews gave a deeper understanding of individuals’ choices of institutions. The most common reason for choice was location, across all educational pathways. The second reason was the perceived quality of institution and/or course. There was often a process of ‘self limitation’ – students tended to exclude many institutions located beyond perceived barriers of physical (proximity to home), academic (grade requirements) or social (friends) space.

Subjects studied: Some subjects are more vocationally oriented than others. There must be fair access for those with non-traditional backgrounds across all academic areas, otherwise there is a continuation of the academic/vocational divide.
The authors used ‘odds-ratio’ to analyse the data. The greatest differences were found in medicine/dentistry and veterinary science, which had a 25 times lower entry for VET students. VET students were over-represented in ‘engineering and technology’, ‘business and admin’, education, agriculture and computer sciences. It is possible that those with vocational qualifications are more attracted to applied subjects.
Different wage premia are connected with degrees in different subjects, but there is no clear pattern between prior qualifications.

Is there a difference for subjects within different types of institution? A level students are much more likely to study at pre-’92 institutions, even when accounting for their subjects.

Conclusions
One explicit goal of the current widening participation agenda is to open up pathways for students from VET backgrounds into HE. The paper looked at the notion of “fair access”, encouraging a more even distribution of students from disadvantaged backgrounds across HEIs and courses which offer the highest financial returns. Although the policy appears effective (VET students are participating in HE), there is little evidence of the PARITY OF ESTEEM, with most VET students at post-’92 HEIs with lower RAE and QAA results. Reasons for this are associated with tracking within a stratified HE system and also individual choice. Tracking suggests that significant institutional barriers remain, funnelling VET students into post-92 HEIs. Personal choice is also involved and is highly individualised. This includes evidence of self-limitation through physical, academic and social barriers. The authors suggest that the policies riving these changes are too weak to achieve the desired outcome.