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Enhancing Learning in the First Year: Responsivity, Reciprocity and Relationships
Conference paper

Enhancing Learning in the First Year: Responsivity, Reciprocity and Relationships

Tania Aspland
Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on The First-Year Experience
International Conference on The First-Year Experience, 19th (Toronto, Canada, 2006)
National Resource Centre, University of South Carolina
2006
url
http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/View
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Abstract

Higher Education university students
Part A The context of the study: The first year student experience has become an area of interest for many universities both in Australia and overseas, and as a result, institutions now monitor with increasing intensity the experiences of their first year student population. This data becomes significantly crucial to the wellbeing of universities. Part B The study: This section reports on a study that was funded by the university to interrogate the key research questions: What are the perspectives of first year students when engaging in learning through lectures and tutorials? And; What are the perspectives of lecturers when engaging with first year students when engaging in learning through lectures and tutorials? The interpretivist paradigm was chosen to underpin the research. The value of adopting an interpretivist approach to research is that it can uncover people's understanding of a phenomenon, more specifically first year students' perspectives of learning engagement. Part C The findings: The analysis revealed that a variety of factors played an important part in enhancing student learning engagement in first year as individuals, they reported different issues and emphasis on different factors. However, as a group, several themes emerged that were consistent across all students. These themes can be explored under three main categories that describe learning from a first year student perspective within one institution: the social aspect of learning, the reciprocal nature of learning, and the responsiveness necessary for learning. Students also identified a number of significant pedagogical practices that reflected the responsiveness and reciprocity of lecturers and tutors including spontaneous questioning, substantive conversation, and the development of a low-risk learning environment. The students reported that the utilization of responsive and reciprocal pedagogies of this type ensured the deconstruction and reconstruction of key learning concepts that resulted in transformative learning engagement.

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