Absorbing the shock: early findings from a project on first year success

In their paper Eddie Higgins and Sallie Spilsbury (Manchester Metropolitan University) presented early findings from the Shock Absorber project aimed at supporting and retaining first year learners.

The Shock Absorber is a three year project under the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme carrying out research into what ‘shocks’ students about their first year experience. A collaborative venture across three institutions (Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Liverpool and Stockport College) and five disciplines (law, plus archaeology, photography, biological sciences and social work), the project aims to design and pilot appropriate interventions to help students cope with the transition to higher education.

A combination of questionnaires and focus groups is evaluating the impact of the interventions over successive cohorts, with the end goal a ‘toolkit’ of potential strategies and interventions to help alleviate the shock or anxiety often associated with early experiences in higher education, particularly those connected with the first undergraduate assignment.

Research demonstrates that early drop-out, failure or dissatisfaction in the first year have complex causes, with a multiplicity of experiences reflecting diverse educational histories, expectations and understandings of undergraduate life. It can be misleading to refer to one ‘first year experience’, presenting a challenge in the design of integrated learning and teaching strategies, particularly in the context of legal study where high student numbers (and often pressure to increase them) may emphasise delivery strategies based around ‘one size suits all’ lecture style teaching. The project has a particular focus around support for early assignments, but is also investigating other early stages of the first year student life cycle, from pre-entry through to end of year assessment.

The project is currently in its second year. A large scale questionnaire of first years has been carried out and analysed, with a corresponding questionnaire delivered to second years with the aim of exploring the factors which influenced their success. The questionnaire was designed around commonly accepted reasons for poor engagement in the early weeks:

• having made the wrong choice of course/programme of studies
• feelings of isolation
• being overwhelmed by traditional induction processes
• lack of personal contact with staff – especially when much of the early experience occurs in large lectures
• uncertainty regarding workload weighting, assessment criteria and level
• lack of timely and meaningful feedback on assignments
• experiencing lack of timely support for disability and dyslexia requirements

As is often the way with projects, initial progress was rather slower than planned, and focus groups providing a richer qualitative picture of the ‘shocks’ to be absorbed have not yet taken place.

The issue of support for assignments was explored in the context of a new first year unit on the law degree, Legal technique and reasoning. The rationale for the unit grew from consultation with both staff and students in relation to more effective support for skills development for first year undergraduates. Findings from the project came too late to influence the design of the unit, however the philosophy behind it is based on encouraging students to develop the techniques they need to succeed in other subjects.

Alison Bone (University of Brighton) reports:

rv. Eddie introduced the session by giving some context. Student issues on arrival at university are of course many and varied – personal and financial issues loom large. Students are also uncertain about workload and assessment.
 
Early action research focused on the ‘student voice’ – the entire first year was given a questionnaire and there were focus groups later. Some second year students were also surveyed. The original questionnaire (issued in 2007-08) was some 90 questions long and too unwieldy, so the one for the 2008-09 session is much shorter.
 
There was some more scene setting by Sallie and Jenny – joining information is centrally produced, which is probably not to the students’ advantage…law students first assessment point is one month into term when they have a exam and receive early feedback – coursework comes later.
 
The findings on pre-entry were very interesting – law students did not feel informed before they arrived about a wide range of issues. Positive responses to the question whether they felt informed about a range of maters were extremely low – attendance requirements (22% as against 40% for all subjects), workload (21% as against 30% overall) and assessment (39% as against 40% overall).
 
This year LLB students have been given a welcome pack covering both information and pastoral issues plus ‘Top ten tips for success’, for example ”Coming to lectures means you have a better chance of passing” (my paraphrase). The overall impression is that students are now better informed, but they still need more support with their first assessment and independent study patterns need to be nurtured.
 
The session finished with some issues to consider:

• the different experiences of A level and non-A level students
• experience of students recruited through clearing
• exploring the online community
• providing the necessary support for the first assessment

About the presenters

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Eddie Higgins is a senior learning and teaching fellow in MMU’s Faculty of Humanities, Law and Social Science. In her faculty role she co-ordinates retention strategies, while in the law school she is currently developing a new year 1 unit for full time students on pervasive skills, and also has responsibility for e-learning.
 
Sallie Spilsbury is a principal lecturer in the School of Law at MMU. She is also joint director of LLB programmes, a role which includes a focus on student retention and progression.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010