Accommodating those Most at Risk. Responding to a Mismatch in Programme Selection Criteria and Foundation Biology Performance

Kirby, Nicola F.; Dempster, Edith R.

doi:10.1080/09500693.2015.1121550

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Most lectures, particularly in the natural sciences, focus on knowledge about scientific content and concepts as well as the nature of science and scientific enquiry. However, scientific literacy in its fundamental sense, that is developing the skills to read, interpret and write scientific texts, tends to be neglected in science education (Kirby and Dempster, 2015). The scaffolding academic literacy approach fosters the development of scientific literacy in this fundamental sense.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using scaffolding academic literacy practices in tertiary classrooms: A South African case study

Bertram

Johnson²,

Goldring

2022

CriSTaL

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Academic development research supports embedding academic literacies development in disciplinary teaching. This enables students to experience reading and writing as disciplinary academic practices. However, few lecturers have the language knowledge and the pedagogical expertise to do this. The Reading to Learn pedagogy provides a scaffolded methodology that lecturers in higher education can adapt. We reflect on our own experiences of using these scaffolded academic literacy practices in three cases: with first year biology students, biochemistry Honours students and Masters in Education students. We argue that scaffolded academic literacy practices are useful because they emphasise both the reading and writing of texts in the discipline, provide an educational approach to plagiarism by modelling how to meaningfully paraphrase academic text, and support learner engagement. Additionally, the professional learning opportunities help academics to develop both knowledge of language and a clear methodology which can be adapted to a range of disciplines and levels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using scaffolding academic literacy practices in tertiary classrooms: A South African case study

Bertram

Johnson²,

Goldring

2022

CriSTaL

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“…The data presented in figure 3 (Yhnell et al, 2016). This negative correlation is not seen in all cases, and some studies show that the entry scores can, in fact, be used as a prognostic indicator of programme success (Kirby & Dempster, 2015;Owusu-Apenten & Xu, 2012).…”

Section: Entry Tariff Pointsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Vocational and Mature Student Success in Higher Education Foundation Programmes

Black¹

2021

The Journal of Continuing Higher Education

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is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and has an interest in investigating the transition which students undergo when entering Higher Education and the impact this has on academic attainment. A Senior Fellow of the HEA, she has also been awarded a PGDip in Academic Studies with the focus of much of her early work on the academic attainment of international postgraduate students when combined with English for Academic Purpose provision. Vocational and Mature Students Success in Higher Education Foundation ProgrammesHigher Education in the UK is pressured to widen participation due to the social justice issues of mobility and movement through the class divide. However, those from lower classes and mature students, elect for qualifications that do not classically allow entry into university, for example, Business and Technology Education Council and Access to Higher Education Diplomas. A solution to this is a university bridging programme. Such a programme was analysed as to whether it prepares different cohorts of students effectively for undergraduate programmes; those who have just missed the entry tariff points but are coming from Advanced levels qualifications, the other coming from non-traditional entry routes. Data from one academic year was anonymised and analysed. Results indicated that students coming from widening participation courses score significantly lower on the programme than those coming from Advanced level awards of any subject. This indicates that vocational and returning to education qualifications fail to prepare students for academia due to being focused on the outcome, rather than the objective, of learning. The study also questions entry tariff point equivalency as it was seen that those with higher points, had nontraditional qualifications, yet performed worse, suggesting entry points cannot be used prognostically.

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“…POGIL has been shown to increase student confidence (De Gale & Boisselle, 2015), problem solving abilities and performance (Farrell, Moog, & Spencer, 1999;Hein, 2012). These attributes are desirable for any cohort of students, however, several local academic development programmes have found the constructivist pedagogy (Kirby & Dempster, 2011) and student engagement in small group activities (Pym, 2013) particularly promising.…”

Section: Pogilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Refining Process-oriented Guided Inquiry Learning for Chemistry Students in an Academic Development Programme

Mundy

Potgieter

2019

African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technol

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In this study, action research was used over two years to refine the implementation of process oriented guided inquiry learning for chemistry students in an academic development programme at a research-intensive South African university. Students' responses to guided inquiry were collected based on a three pillar framework underpinned by Cognitive Load Theory and the Information Processing Model. A mixed methods approach was used to gather data including observations, questionnaire responses, focus group interviews and student assessment results. The findings are exhibited year by year using the analysis tool, 'joint displays'. Findings from the first year of study highlighted student difficulty with factors contributing to extraneous load such as social dynamics, worksheet layout and time required. Revisions addressed these areas of difficulty in the second year with positive results in terms of student behaviour and achievement. Analysis of Year 2 findings lead to several recommendations for further guided inquiry revisions to serve novice students in the context of an academic development programme: prior knowledge should be activated to mitigate cognitive overload, relevant language should replace foreign terms to sensitise the perception filter, and, more explicit scaffolding could be embedded to enrich the student's germane cognitive load during processing.

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Accommodating those Most at Risk. Responding to a Mismatch in Programme Selection Criteria and Foundation Biology Performance

Cited by 5 publications

References 28 publications

Using scaffolding academic literacy practices in tertiary classrooms: A South African case study

Using scaffolding academic literacy practices in tertiary classrooms: A South African case study

Vocational and Mature Student Success in Higher Education Foundation Programmes

Refining Process-oriented Guided Inquiry Learning for Chemistry Students in an Academic Development Programme

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