scholarly journals Exploring the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Student Attainment Gap: What Did It Tell Us? Actions to Address Home BME Undergraduate Students’ Degree Attainment

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Smith
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
White Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Degree Attainment ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Student Population ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Attainment Gap ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This paper explores work in progress on six key actions derived from a project exploring Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) student degree attainment at Leeds Beckett University (LBU). In 2014–15, in common with the wider national picture in higher education, at LBU there was a significant disparity between the percentage achievement of good degrees (Firsts and 2:1 classification) between the white students (64%, who comprise 84% of the total institutional student population) and the BME students (49%, who comprise 16% of the total institutional student population). This attainment gap existed across all the degree programmes after controlling for UCAS tariff points on entry. Indeed, it has been indicated in the literature that the degree attainment gap is strongly related to the experience of teaching and learning at a university (Stephenson, 2012; Office for Fair Access [OFFA], 2015). This context provided the opportunity to examine the particular nature of the BME student experience with a view to using this information to develop local University strategy and actions in relation to identified priority areas. This research used a mixed methods approach of i) documentary analysis of course documentation wording to explore the visibility of inclusive curricular issues and ii) focus groups and interviews to explore staff and student views on BME student experience and achievement. This paper presents findings from student and staff focus groups and documentary evidence from course documents of the five courses in our University which had the highest numbers of enrolled BME students. The findings focused on the BME students’ low confidence, their classroom and placement experience, curricular content, reading lists and delivery. Discussion of these findings by staff and students generated six priorities for short term action. Progress on these actions and proposed future developments are outlined.

scholarly journals The early impact of initiatives to close attainment gaps at UCL

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Mary Duhs ◽  
Julie Evans ◽  
Paulette Williams ◽  
Parama Chaudhury
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Inclusive Curriculum ◽  
Attainment Gap ◽  
University College London ◽  
Minority Ethnic

  This article provides an overview of core aspects of efforts to close the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) attainment gap across University College London (UCL). Although the main ‘Catalyst Student Success’ project focuses on home undergraduate students, at UCL we are also using similar approaches to enhance inclusivity in postgraduate courses. The focus in this paper is nevertheless on undergraduates. The detailed use of student attainment data by the UCL Centre for Teaching and Learning Economics is outlined and discussed to underpin the introduction of the use of UCL’s ‘Inclusive Curriculum Health Check’ (ICHC) – UCL BAME Attainment Project 2018 – as a framework for the initiatives taken by departments. A table with the initial responses from the departments in one faculty is presented and selected points are discussed. The value and potential of the initiatives recommended through the ICHC are explored in a table which links systematic review evidence (Schneider and Preckel, 2017) to the ICHC. Staff actions in partnership with students are designed primarily to have a positive impact on the experience and outcomes of BAME students, but the research evidence suggests that favourable effects will accrue for all students.  

scholarly journals Why is the BME attainment gap such a wicked problem?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Liz Austen ◽  
Caroline Heaton ◽  
Stella Jones-Devitt ◽  
Nathaniel Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Attainment Gap ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This paper outlines a research process which followed a case study approach (Yin, 2009) to explore the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) student attainment gap, and responses to it, at Sheffield Hallam University. A mixed methodology was envisaged, which would triangulate institutional data, measures of student engagement, focus groups and researcher reflections to construct an analysis of interventions aimed at enhancing confidence and belonging for BME students.  This discussion focuses on the challenges experienced by the research team and uses the notion of a 'wicked problem' to help understand the limitations faced.  'Wicked problems' (Rittel, 1972; see Conklin, 2005) are entrenched in social complexity, which increases in line with the diversity of the associated stakeholders. These problems have the ability to divide opinion, provide limited solutions and lay blame for lack of results. This research examining the BME attainment gap can be critiqued using this notion of a 'wicked problem', noting that, without recognition, this issue has the potential to become ubiquitous and almost unsolvable.

scholarly journals The experience of BME commuting students

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Virginia Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
Degree Attainment ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
Extra Curricular Activities ◽  
Attainment Gap ◽  
Family Home ◽  
Infrastructural Support ◽  
Minority Ethnic

The reasons for the black and minority ethnic (BME) student degree attainment gap are complex and multifactorial. However, it appears that increasing numbers of all students are commuting to campus from the parental and family home, something now disproportionately exemplified by BME students at Leeds Beckett University.This paper outlines findings from a small, qualitative project focusing on commuting BME undergraduates and explores how their issues and needs have been addressed through a range of cultural, infrastructural and curricular interventions.The main issue of concern which supports the recent report (Thomas and Jones, 2017) is that many commuting BME students will prioritise academic engagement but are unaware of the wider social and cultural capital that can be gained from participating in extra-curricular activities. It is clear that some difficulties faced by BME commuting students are identical to those faced by all commuting students: stress, impractical timetabling and assessment deadlines, ‘invisibility’. BME students (commuting and non-commuting) are already often disadvantaged by a poorer learning experience than that of their peers and consequently by lower degree attainment (Richardson, 2008a & b, Newbold et al., 2011) and reduced employability (Allen, 2016), an inequality that may be compounded in the case of those disproportionately high numbers of BME students who also commute. University action must be situated within a broader framework of inclusive academic practice, drawing on a “holistic engagement vision” (Pickford, 2016, p. 31) of infrastructural support and partnership working between students and staff.

scholarly journals Decolonising the political theory curriculum

Politics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 026339572095754
Author(s):  
Simon Choat
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
White Students ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Attainment Gap ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Ethnic Students ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Minority Ethnic

Recent calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ are especially pertinent to the teaching of political theory, which has traditionally been dominated by a canon made up overwhelmingly of White (and male) thinkers. This article explores why and how political theory curricula might be decolonised. By mapping core political theory modules provided at UK universities, and examining associated textbooks, the article shows that non-White thinkers and discussions of colonialism and race are marginalised and neglected. It then argues that there are intellectual, political, and pedagogical reasons why this neglect is problematic and should be reversed. Finally, the article reflects on the experience of rewriting and delivering a core second-year undergraduate modern political thought module at a post-92 London university, including assessing the impact of the changes on the attainment gap between White students and Black and minority ethnic students.

scholarly journals Exploring first-year undergraduates’ perceptions of poetry and their acquisition of skills in reading poetry for study at university

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Weston
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Department ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Technical Vocabulary

There is significant evidence drawn from student evaluations that students embarking on undergraduate English degrees feel uneasy about studying poetry and that this anxiety has an effect on the course choices they make as they progress through the three years of their programme. This study aims to investigate the causes of students’ responses to poetry and to make a beginning in looking at the implications that this has for teaching and learning. It explores students’ acquisition of skills and attitudes that make poetry-reading a rewarding activity. Data has been gathered from focus groups with first-year undergraduate students in an English department at a UK university to discover what perceptions of poetry are held by students and what factors in teaching contribute to the development and/or perpetuation of these perceptions. In brief, the study finds that for effective teaching the cultivation of enthusiasm for poetry is just as important as building technical vocabulary and learning techniques of formal analysis. There is some evidence that the latter flows out of the former. It also finds that students feel the former is often overlooked in the classroom.

scholarly journals Perspectives of organizational identity in a health higher education institution: a mixed-method analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ubirajara José Picanço de Miranda Junior ◽  
Maria Rita Carvalho Garbi Novaes ◽  
Henrique Batista Araújo Santos ◽  
João Fellipe Santos Tatsch ◽  
Rafael Sanches Ferreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institution

Abstract Background Among the processes to be experienced by any organization during its establishment is the formation of an organizational identity. This process can be understood as the activity and event through which an organization becomes unique in the mind of its members. An organizational identity leads to an identification and both are directly associated with the success of an institution. This study is about a public higher education institution in health in its early years, with distinctive characteristics in the country where it is situated. In spite of having been successful in the graduation of its students it has fragile institutional bases, lack of autonomy and internal problems common to other institutions of this type. Thus, this study was conducted to understand how this institution defined itself among its own members, the elements of its identity and what justified its relative success despite its weaknesses. Methods A mixed-method approach was used to evaluate how a representative portion of this organization identifies with it. For the qualitative study two focus groups were conducted with transcripts submitted to content analysis proposed by Bardin, culminating in results from which a Likert scale-based questionnaire was elaborated and applied to 297 subjects. Results There were six central elements of the organizational identity made evident by the focus groups: political / ideological conflict; active teaching and learning methodologies; location / separation of campuses; time of existence; teaching career; political-administrative transformations. The quantitative analysis revealed in more detail the general impressions raised in the focus groups. Most results were able to demonstrate distinct identifications of the same identity with its exposed weaknesses. Conclusions Lack of autonomy, administrative and structural shortcomings and ideological or political conflicts presented themselves as problems capable of destabilizing the identity of a public higher education institution. On the other hand, one way to combat such problems is through the development of the institution itself, particularly by becoming more active and useful to the community and seeking in a common interest to the higher administration agencies.

The Finkleman Preparation: A Computer Simulation for Teaching Undergraduate Students of Pharmacology

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 474-480
Author(s):  
David Dewhurst ◽  
Ian Hughes ◽  
Richard Ullyott
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Computer Assisted Learning ◽  
Sympathetic Nerve Stimulation ◽  
Chart Recorder ◽  
Experimental Protocols ◽  
Evoked Contractions

An interactive computer-assisted learning program is described, which simulates a number of experiments which can be performed on the isolated, innervated duodenum of the rabbit (the Finkleman preparation). This preparation is one of the classical pharmacological preparations used to demonstrate to undergraduate students the effects of selected drugs: those acting on adrenoceptors or intestinal smooth muscle, or those affecting responses to sympathetic nerve stimulation. The program runs on any IBM compatible PC, and makes use of text and high resolution graphics to provide a background to the experiments and to describe the methodology. A screen display which emulates a chart recorder presents simulated results (spontaneous or evoked contractions of the gut), derived from actual data, in response to the selection by students of predetermined experimental protocols from a menu. The program is designed to enhance or replace the traditional laboratory-based practical using this preparation, whilst achieving the majority of the same teaching and learning objectives.

scholarly journals A virtual alternative to molecular model sets: a beginners’ guide to constructing and visualizing molecules in open-source molecular graphics software

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siripreeya Phankingthongkum ◽  
Taweetham Limpanuparb
Keyword(s):  
General Chemistry ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Molecular Model ◽  
Bond Line ◽  
First Year ◽  
Molecular Graphics ◽  
Model Sets ◽  
Graphics Software

Abstract Objective The application of molecular graphics software as a simple and free alternative to molecular model sets for introductory-level chemistry learners is presented. Results Based on either Avogadro or IQmol, we proposed four sets of tasks for students, building basic molecular geometries, visualizing orbitals and densities, predicting polarity of molecules and matching 3D structures with bond-line structures. These topics are typically covered in general chemistry for first-year undergraduate students. Detailed step-by-step procedures are provided for all tasks for both programs so that instructors and students can adopt one of the two programs in their teaching and learning as an alternative to molecular model sets.

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