As two recent university graduates we are concerned about
the labelling of students as customers who need to be kept satisfied. We
believe that positioning students in this way in relation to their learning is
deeply damaging to all our futures. Entering the next stage in our lives, at a
time of uncertainty and rapid change, we need to be able to be proactive, think
for ourselves, take a critical approach to problem solving, communicate
effectively with a range of people and use our knowledge creatively.
If we are seen, and come to see ourselves, as customers who
respond and react to what is given to us, who are asked if we like our courses
(not what we gain from them), then we are unlikely to emerge from higher
education as effective lifelong learners.
When you start in higher education, universities are keen to
tell you what they can do for you. In the area of learning and teaching, you
know how many lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials you will receive. You
are told how you will be assessed and how you will get feedback. But coming
from school, there will be less staff contact time and ongoing support than you
have been used to.
It is easy to see how as customers, coming with particular
expectations based on prior experience, we may be less than satisfied. As a new
university student, you will know that you need to be more independent in your
learning but it's not always clear what this means. If teaching is about
transmission and testing, how is learning different at this level? Studying in
higher education is – surely – about developing and growing, not just an
extension of A- levels.
As students at the University of Hertfordshire, we found one
approach that enabled us to take responsibility for our own learning. This was
when we were engaged in research-like activity with other students and with
staff. Working within our subjects in this way we came to understand how
knowledge was created in our disciplines. Through guided enquiry we began to
think and act in disciplinary ways. We understood the process of learning and
could therefore learn more effectively. When staff coached us and facilitated
our enquiries into a broad range of topics (rather than just telling us
information), we understood more about what academics do – something that is
hard to understand if you only see members of staff giving a lecture.
We also took part in projects, jointly funded by the
university and by the Higher Education Academy, where we worked collaboratively
with staff researching different aspects of course learning. We collected and
analysed data and shared our findings with a variety of audiences.
This type of
work helped us to reflect on our study and become confident in taking
responsibility not only for our own learning but that of others. This involved
working with new students to help them to understand about effective learning.
We saw ourselves as project partners with staff and learnt that a university
community thrives when all its members contribute.
Working in this way can be very challenging. If students are
not used to guided enquiry, but instead expect regular transmission learning, they
may become anxious. They may not understand why they should be learning in this
way and may worry that they won't be successful. They may even express
themselves as customers who are dissatisfied. This is particularly likely to be
the case if only one of their modules uses this form of learning and it is
perceived as more difficult than the more traditional modules.
It would be easy for staff to give up on this approach if
they get poor student feedback. To avoid this outcome, we believe that universities
need to focus much more on learning – on challenging us to be collaborative
learners rather than conformist students who reproduce what we have been told.
Whatever the rhetoric surrounding independent learning, universities are
currently pushing students into dependency through a focus on consumerism and a
transmission and testing regime. Only by becoming learning partners will
today's students really be satisfied.
Source: 7 November 2012, The Guardian by Florence Afolabi
and Lewis Stockwell (Recent graduates of the University of Hertfordshire).
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